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THE MOXKS BEFORE CHRIST. 




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THE 



MONKS BEFORE CHRIST: 



CJeir Spirit atttj tjcir f^istorg. 



BY 



JOHN EDGAR JOHNSON. 



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BOSTON: 
A. WILLIAJMS AND COMPANY. 

1870. 






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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

JOHN EDGAR JOHKSON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 



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TO 



MRS. ELLEN C. JOHNSON, 

A TRUE "SISTER OE CHARITY," 

WHO HAS NOT POUND IT NECESSARY TO FORTIFY HERSELF 

AGAINST THE WORLD BY RETIRING FROM THE WORLD, 

BUT WHO WORKS IN AND THROUGH SOCIETY 

FOR THE WELFARE OF HER 

FELLOW MEN, 

EifiQ iSooft ts afffctionateig IBeUicateH 

BY HER FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



TF there is a book in the world which accom- 
plishes just what has been attempted in the fol- 
lowing pages, I am ignorant of its existence. I was 
led to this study by a profound love and admiration 
for the monks ; and I have felt at times the working 
of their spirit, and longed to be one of their number. 
If, then, it be thought that I have dealt with them 
too severely, let it be remembered that I am passing 
judgment upon myself. 

It was my fortune to reside for several months 
at the Catholic University of Munich, in Bavaria, 
where I came in contact with members of the Order 
of Saint Benedict, and shall always remember 
that season as one of the most profitable in my re- 
ligious experience. Had I been what the world 
would call a good Protestant, I did not then see, nor 



Vlll PREFACE. 

do I now, how I could have helped becoming a good 
Catholic ; and this step taken, I would not have 
stopped short of its complete realization, — the 
monkish life. 

At other times, I have discovered what seemed 
to me a higher standard of morality than that 
adopted by the monks ; and a closer acquaintance 
with their mode of life, as it now exists in Europe, 
gave to the hopes which I once indulged a sad fall. 
Six months' observation in Southern France and 
Italy convinced me, that this institution was far 
from what I had thought to find it. 

A visit to the monastery on Mount Cassim, 
founded by Saint Benedict in 429, did much to 
open my eyes to this fact. I was hospitably enter- 
tained; and the Brother who escorted me around 
the vast structure where I remained over night, was 
particularly kind ; but when I mentioned to him my 
inclination to the monkish life, he declared that the 
time for making one's self a monk was now past, 
and then gave as a reason the fact that the monas- 
teries had been deprived of their revenues, and their 
abbots of the titles which they used to bear.^ I said 

1 The abbot of Mount Cassim was formerly tlie first 
baron in Italy. 



PREFACE. IX 

to him that I thought them but poor disciples of the 
saint whose name they bore, if they allowed them- 
selves to be cast down by circumstances such as 
these. 

The next morning, I expressed considerable anxi- 
ety to my guide of the day before, on the score of 
my passport, which I had failed to have vised before 
leaving Naples for E-ome. " Tell them that you 
have not been at Naples," he suggested. " But," I 
replied, " they will ask where I have been, and how 
I got from France into the Papal States." " Ah, I 
have it! " said he, " tell them you landed at Gaeta [a 
small port near Mount Cassim] ; or, if you have to 
say Naples, tell them that the police there examined 
your passport, and said it was all right." " Great 
Heavens ! " thought I, " and these are the men who 
had the exclusive manipulation of our Scriptures for 
several hundred years ! " 

I copy the following extract from my journal of 
that day : " On the whole, my visit to Mount Cas- 
sim, and conversation with the Brothers there, 
make me less confident than formerly that the 
monastic life belongs to the future." I visited, sub- 
sequently, several monasteries in Italy, and among 



X PREFACE. 

others, the one upon the top of Mount Carvo, four- 
teen miles from Rome ; but this feeling has grad- 
ually strengthened with me, from that time until 
now. 

If, however, men and women can be prevailed 
upon to devote their lives to ' charitable works by 
holding up to them the inducement of a uniform or 
badge of office, make the offer by all means for the 
sake of an ulterior good. Just as we stimulate chil- 
dren with the promise of "rewards," and give a 
" banner " to the best class in Sunday school. 

As for the historical chapters of this book, I must 
leave them to speak for themselves. Much of the 
research has been made in a field as yet quite un- 
explored ; and the original documents have always 
been consulted when they were to be had. 

If the reception of this volume should warrant 
the step, I purpose very soon to bring the study 
down to our own times. There are many histories 
of the different monastic orders in existence, but no 
available work in our language, as far as I am ac- 
quainted, which treats the subject of Christian 
monasticism in a concise and general manner. The 
plan of the future work would be nearly as fol- 
lows : — 



PREFACE. XX 

Period First. Early Christian Monasticism (Forma- 
tive Period) . 

Period Second. From Saint Benedict, the Lawgiver 
(429), until the founding of the first great order 
of Beggar Monks (1210). 

Period Third. History of the Beggar Monks until 
the Reformation (1517). 

Period Fourth. From the Reformation until our 
time. 

A chapter will be added on the Monastic Institu- 
tions of the United States of America. 

The influence of the monks upon letters during 
the Middle and Dark Ages, the assistance rendered 
by them to the Popes in establishing the papal 
power, and the part played by them in the Refor- 
mation, are subjects to each of which a chapter 
would be devoted. 

THE AUTHOR. 

Brighton, Mass., 

Maxch, 1870. 



CONTENTS. 



PART FIRST. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGB 

The spirit of asceticism founded in human nature, and 
hence legitimate. Its grounds. Two kinds of asceti- 
cism. I. Negative. Three conclusions drawn from 
the conscious inability of man to attain to perfect good- 
ness. The historical development of this principle, and 
its close connection with the belief in a personal devil. 
The three great manifestations of the monastic spirit: 
First, Celibacy. The high estimate in which this state is 
held in the Roman Catholic church, due to the system 
of Oriental dualism incorporated into her theology ; tes- 
timony of the Catholic fathers in its favor: was it sanc- 
tioned by Jesus? Second, Poverty. How it expresses 
the monastic spirit; monkish garbs an evidence of 
vanity. Third, Obedience. Danger to the State from 
monkish vows; opposed to the spirit of Christianity. 
11. Positive. Danger of self-contemplation; its self- 
ishness; limitation; a moderate indulgence in self-ex- 
amination salutary; man has two natures; the monk 
forgets this 3 



XIV CONTENTS. 

PART SECOND. 

HISTORY OF THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

CHAPTER I. 

Preparatory Remarks concerning the Origin and 
Spread of Ancient Civilizations. 

PAGB 

Importance of method in the study of history. Which 
is the oldest civilization? The Chinese. The Cushites. 
The Aryans. The emigrations of the last two families 
traced by means of a chart 37 

CHAPTER n. 

PAGAN MONKS. 

Great antiquity of monasticism ; as old as religion; Two 
sources of information, — monumental and biblical ; The 
testimony of the former ; the Sacred Books of the An- 
cients examined. Chaldea. The Nabatean Agriculture. 
Azada (about 4500 B.C.), the first great monk. India. 
The Vedas ; The Law of Manu examined ; Its monkish 
character; Gotama Buddha; Examination of the monk- 
ish code called the Winaya Pitaka. Persia. The 
Zend-Avesta. Cliina. The Chou-King; Confucius a 
monk. Greece. The Order foimded by Pythagoras; 
the Pagan Jesuits ; Monasticism as it exists to-day in 
the East; Striking similarity between Hindoo monks 
and those of Christendom 51 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER in. 
JEWISH MONKS. 

PAGE 

Elijah; John the Baptist. The Essenes. Sources from 
whence their history is drawn ; what were the Essenes ? 
extracts from Josephus showing them to be a monkish 
order ; who were they ? Attempts of modern critics to 
trace their origin. The Therapeutos. Philo's account 
of them. A theory suggested to account for the origin 
of these two sects; the Essenes not mentioned in the 
New Testament ; De Quincey identifies them with the 
early Christians; his theory confuted ; attempts made to 
trace the origin of Christianity to Essenism ; who made 
them; did Jesus Christ belong to this sect; the precepts 
and practices of each contrasted ; this doctrine recently 
brought to life again; examination of the " Epistles of 
the Essenes;" the "Swooning" or "Eesuscitation" 
theory, and how it accounts for the resurrection of 
Jesus ; was Jesus Christ a monk ? 109 



PAET FIRST. 
THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 



CHAPTER 1.1 

The spirit of asceticism founded in human nature, and hence 
legitimate. Its grounds. Two kinds of asceticism. I. Neg- 
ative. Three conclusions drawn from the conscious inability 
of man to attain to perfect goodness. The historical develop- 
ment of this principle, and its close connection with the belief 
in a personal devil. The three great manifestations of the mo- 
nastic spirit : First, Celibacy. The high estimate in which this 
state is held in the Roman Catholic church, due to the system 
of Oriental dualism incorporated into her theology ; testimony 
of the Catholic fathers in its favor: was it sanctioned by Jesus? 
Second, Poverty. How it expresses the monastic spirit ; monk- 
ish garbs an evidence of vanity. Third, Obedience. Danger 
to the State from monkish vows; opposed to the spirit of 
Christianity. II. Positive. Danger of self-contemplation ; 
its selfishness ; limitation ; a moderate indulgence in self-ex- 
amination salutary ; man has two natures ; the monk forgets 
this. 

T WISH we knew who the first monk was ; 

for then we should be able to solve that 

great biblico-ethnological question, " Who was 

the first man ? " Monasticism is a phase of 

1 Kichard Eothe, Theologische Ethik (Die Asketik) ; 
Jouflroy, Introduction to Ethics (System of Mysticism); 
Zockler, Ueber Askese und deren Geschichte. 



4 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

the religious nature of man. It is here that we 
are to seek its hidden meaning and its origin. 
" Every great error," says Dr. Clarke, " is a 
truth gone astray ; " and we would infinitely 
prefer to be a monk, with all his fearful ex- 
cesses, rather than be numbered among those 
who are totally strangers to the spirit which 
kindles and transports him. Men who get 
terribly in earnest about any thing in this 
world are impelled by genuine motives, and 
deserve mild and considerate treatment at our 
hands. The opinions and actions of our fel- 
low-men are not to be held in detestation or 
laughed at, but — understood.^ 

There is one way to paint the monks, — as 
devils ; another way, — as saints. In the latter 
case, relate the incidents of self-sacrifice and 
patient suffering with which their history 
abounds. In the former, dwell upon their 
cruel, immoral, and ambitious conduct ; upon 
the crusades which they have preached against 

1 Hominum affectus et actiones nee detestari nee ridere, 
sed — intelligere. Spinoza, Ethic, lib. III. Proem, 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 5 

heretics ; upon the Massacre of Saint Bartho- 
lomew; upon their political intrigues in the 
Netherlands, in England, and in India ; upon 
the Gunpowder Plot and the League. This 
is one mode of treating the subject : a better 
method is, to take both phases of their his- 
tory into consideration, and then weigh one 
against the other. 

Human nature is as varied as the physical 
surface of the globe. Thousands of persons 
have never been in China; and thousands 
more are strangers to the impulse which moves 
the monk. Four fifths of human nature are 
ignorant of the other fifth. Hence it would 
be no more unreasonable for a Protestant 
American to dispute with an inhabitant of the 
Celestial Empire about his native country, 
than for the former to engage in a contro- 
versy with a monk as to whether the monastic 
life is a natural want of any portion of man- 
kind. For some men it may be a very legiti- 
mate desire; but between them and the rest 
of the world, there flows a broad ocean under 



b THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

which it is possible to lay down an electric 
cable, but over which there exists, for thou- 
sands at least, no means of transportation. 

There are as many varieties of human na- 
ture as there are of Holland tulips. But now 
and then some person succeeds in cultivating 
a tulip, until no one knows, any longer, what 
it is. It cannot be recognized as a tulip. 
Just so, by dwelling upon, stimulating, and 
drawing out to an inordinate extent a particu- 
lar phase of human nature, — a propensity of 
the soul, — it is possible to produce a new 
variety of the genus ^lomo, — a monk. 

Now and then, too, a Chinaman may be 
found who not only maintains the real ex- 
istence of his native country, but insists that 
it is the only one worth living in. The monks 
sometimes imagine that they have found the 
" Celestial Empire." 

A phase of religion is the universal longing 
after perfect godliness: monasticism springs 
from man's inability to attain to it. Catholi- 
cism aims at the accomplishment of this end 



THE SPIRIT OP THE MONKS. 7 

by means of " good works," and, if its doc- 
trine were legitimately carried out, would 
finish by annihilating the human race. The 
child that clutches at the sun, exhausts itself 
in a vain effort. No man ever felt that he de- 
served much at the hands of the Almighty ; 
and the monks of the Thebaid — who passed 
day and night in almost uninterrupted fast- 
ing, tears, and lacerations of the body — dared 
only hope that their " good works " might 
atone, at most, for the evil which they 
constantly fell into. Between these two mill- 
stones, — the impossibility of human perfec- 
tion, and the attempt to attain to it, — man- 
kind had soon been ground to powder. 

Protestantism, terrified at the fearful ex- 
cesses of asceticism, maintained that godli- 
ness was entirely independent of works, and 
could be attained by faith alone. This doc- 
trine, when considered in the abstract, ap- 
pears to justify the charge of licentiousness 
which has frequently been brought against it, 
and to discourage the exercise of practical 



8 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

virtue. A medium course affords the only 
escape from such extreme theories. 

It is difficult to believe that God would 
ever demand perfection at the hands of a 
being whom he has created imperfect; that 
he would take special care that man might 
not contain within him the possibility of per- 
fect goodness in this life, and then punish him 
for not attaining to it. " Be ye, therefore, 
perfect as your Father which is in heaven is 
perfect," should not be literally interpreted, as 
may be shown by many other texts in the 
Scriptures. This injunction places before us 
a high aim, towards which man should ever 
struggle, but to which it is neither expected 
nor required that he attain. Such is the 
answer to Protestantism. 

Against the Catholics it should be main- 
tained, that there are not two eternal principles 
in the universe, but one ; that the body does 
not belong to the devil, but to God, and is his 
work ; that virtue is active, and that the pas- 
sions are given to us for our good, and should 



THE SPIEIT OF THE MONKS. 9 

be controlled, not annihilated. " It is much 
easier to extinguish our first desire, than it is 
to regulate and satisfy those that follow it." ^ 
Asceticism, we have said, rests upon the 
longing after perfect godliness ; and it finds 
expression in two ways : 

I. Negative. It revenges itself upon the 
body, which drags the soul down, and pre- 
vents the accorhplishment of its desire. It 
vents its spite upon the passions, — those 
sentinels appointed by the Almighty, whose 
purpose it is to create subordinate souls and 
not co-ordinate ones. 

II. Positive. The soul sinks itself in con- 
templation of the supreme good. 

The monk hated the world as the work of 
the devil, and his body as the means by which 
he was brought in contact with it. At different 
times he has pursued two opposite courses 
with regard to the treatment of his body. He 
began by trying to wear it out, but finally con- 
cluded to let it rust out. The monks in Egypt 

1 Rocliefoucauld. 



10 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

were agriculturists ; and Saint Benedict, in the 
sixth century, prescribed seven hours' manual 
labor every day. Usually, however, monas- 
ticism has evinced a profound contempt for 
all action, — intellectual, physical, and sexual. 

We have alluded to the conscious inability 
of man to attain to that perfect good which 
he longs after. Now there are three conclu- 
sions which may be drawn from that fact, and 
we mention them in their historic order : — 

1st. There are two creating principles in 
the universe, a good and a bad ; to the former 
we owe the living soul of man, and to the 
latter the material world and our bodies. This 
doctrine was known to the early Christian 
church under the name of Manicheism, but is, 
in its original form, as old as man himself. 

2d. As the belief in one God gradually 
supplanted polytheism, it became necessary 
to account for this discrepancy between man's 
desire and his power of accomplishment; and 
the doctrine of " the fall of man " was then 
evolved. 



THE SPIRIT OP THE MONKS. 11 

3d. As more just ideas of the character of 
God came to prevail, men revolted, as • from 
blasphemy, against the supposition that the 
Almighty would require impossibilities from 
any of his creatures. The object of life has 
come to be regarded as the formation of 
character. Virtue is active, and man was 
already too noble for paradise when he was 
driven forth from it. " If he ever fell," says 
Dr. Bellows, " he certainly fell up^ for he has 
been growing nobler and better ever since." 
Evil is that divine collodion which (in the 
hand of the great Artist) serves to bring out 
and develop the hidden features in the human 
soul. 

Thus the doctrine of mysticism follows in- 
variably either from the doctrine of Mani- 
cheism, or that of " the fall of man ; " and it 
is only by accepting the last of these conclu- 
sions enumerated above that we are able to 
refute it. 

Let us follow the principle, however, in its 
historic development. The belief in a person- 



12 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

al devil ^ is probably as old as the belief in a 
personal God. The idea of unseen spirits 
owed its origin, in the minds of the first men, 
to the death of some of their fellow-creatures. 
They recognized in nature certain phenomena 
which they felt obliged to attribute to an in- 
telligent cause. All propitious occurrences 
were looked upon as the work of good spirits ; 
all inimical events were traced back to the 
agency of bad ones. When the sun shone, 
the crops grew, or success crowned their efforts 
in the chase or upon the war-path, that was 
the work of God; but when the lightning 
struck their cabins, or the torrent swept away 
their harvests, that was the work of the devil. 
And, henceforth, he became essential to the 
existence and development of asceticism. 
Evoked by the belief in Satan, the monastic 
life began to fall into disrepute so soon as the 
world began to question his existence; and their 
destinies have been so closely interlaced that 

1 Dr. Schenkel says there never was a belief in a per- 
sonal devil, — only a superstition. 



THE SPIRIT OP THE MONKS. 13 

the biography of the former would be the his- 
tory of the latter. Quite recently an attempt 
has been made to resuscitate the devil. We have 
been told that " the moral apathy of our time 
is the result of disbelief in a personal devil," 
and that " the devil forms a background for 
the better display of God's attributes." ^ It 
remains to be seen what success will crown 
this effort at resuscitation. One thing, how- 
ever, is certain, that asceticism, which could 
not survive the decease of the devil, will 
spring into new life, the moment he is revived 
again. 

Under the head of negative asceticism may 
properly be considered the three great vows 
which have characterized monastic institutions 
in all time. These are celibacy, poverty, obe- 
dience. 

Celibacy, The monk, it has been said, re- 

1 Martensen. Das Bewusstsein von dem damonischen 
Eeiche und dem Fursten desselben ist der dunkle, nScht- 
liche Hintergrund fur das christliche Bewusstsein, und die 
Furcht von dem Teufel und das tiefe Grauen vor der da- 
monischen Gemeinschaft der dunkle Grund fiir die christ- 
liche Gottesfurcht. 

2. 



14 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

garded his body as the work of the devil ; and 
hence he shrank with horror from the satisfac- 
tion of its wants. Of course, all sexual 'indul- 
gence was a mortal sin ; and the state of celibacy 
was exalted far above that of marriage. " The 
state of Christian celibacy," says a Catholic 
writer,^ " is so eminent and so perfect, that 
neither the Pagan philosophers have formed 
any idea of it, nor was it known to the An- 
cient Law ; while even the New Law has rec- 
ommended rather than commanded it. Saint 
John Chrysostom, who knew so well the 
price and merit of it, did not fear to elevate 
this state above that of marriage, and even 
maintained its equality with the condition of 
the angels. ' If marriage,' said he, * is not for 
the angels, it is not for the virgins.' Thus it 
is that Saint Cyprian has called them * the 
beauty and ornament of spiritlial grace, that 
divine image which corresponds to the holi- 
ness of our Lord Jesus Christ.' " 

1 M. Jean Baptiste Thiers, Tr-aite de la Cloture des Reli- 
gieuses, Paris, 1G81. 



THE SPIRIT OP THE MONKS. 15 

The same author further remarks, that " vir- 
ginity is something so delicate and so fragile, 
that the least injury which it may receive is 
capable of tarnishing its eclat and the lustre 
which accompanies it." " It is extremely im- 
portant," continues he, " for Christian virgins, 
who wish to make sure the grace of their di- 
vine vocation and render themselves worthy 
of the love and caresses of their Lord Jesus 
Christ, in the character of his spouses, that 
they fortify themselves outside of the world 
against the world, and that they place them- 
selves out of the reach of all the criminal 
temptations which may possibly come from 
abroad." 

Saint Ambrose says, that " the virgins, by 
the observance of their vows, attain to the gen- 
eral resurrection by enjoying in advance, in 
this world, the glorious advantages which 
even the elect enjoy only after the day of uni- 
versal judgment." 

Saint Francis de Sales has also lauded the 
state of celibacy (see epistle to an Abbess, No 
50). 



16 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

Such is the doctrine of the Catholic Church 
to-day ; and it rests wholly upon the system 
of Oriental dualism which has been embodied 
in her theology. She places celibacy higher 
than marriage, and yet permits no divorce, 
the inconsistency of which will be seen at once. 
Why insist so tenaciously upon the obser- 
vance of an institution of such subordinate 
value ? There are two passages of Scripture 
which would seem to justify her position ; 
viz., Matt. xxii. 30, where Christ declares that 
in heaven they " neither marry nor are given 
in marriage ; " and also 1 Cor. vii. 7, where 
the apostle Paul expresses the wish that all 
men might be as he was, — that is, single. 
We reply to any argument which may be 
based upon the first text as follows : There 
may be things eminently proper and necessa- 
ry in this world which would be decidedly out 
of place and unnecessary in the next one. 
Among these may be reckoned the propaga- 
tion of our species, without which Christian- 
ity itself must soon cease to exist. With 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. IT 

regard to the second text we remark, — 1st, 
Saint Paul was in the minority among the apos- 
tles in this respect. 2dly, He had no idea of 
extolling celibacy, in itself, above marriage, 
but only preferred it for his followers on ac- 
count of the troubled state of the times, the 
persecution to which they were subject, 
and the supposed proximity of the second 
coming of Christ. His view of the sanctity 
of marriage in itself, may be inferred from the 
fact that he has compared it to the relation 
which exists between Christ and his church. 

This is one of the most pernicious doctrines 
of the Catholic church, but is a legitimate 
consequence of the character which she assigns 
to virtue ; viz., freedom from every thing which 
pertains to the body, as the work of Satan. 
God has given us our passions for a good 
purpose. Virtue is active : it is the result of 
a temptation overcome, or the reward of 
the moderate exercise of our powers. The 
monk finds it much easier to bolt the door 

upon his passions, than he does to regulate 

2* 



18 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

and control them. Virtue is a state of the 
heart ; and the purest souls in heaven, those 
close around the throne of God, are mothers. 
Swedenborg said, that, although the virgins 
he saw in heaven were beautiful, the wives 
were incomparably more beautiful, and went 
on increasing in beauty evermore. 

" ' So celibacy is the highest state ? ' And 
why ? ' Because it is the safest and the 
easiest road to heaven.' A pretty reason I I 
should have thought that was a sign of a 
lower state, and not a higher. Noble spirits 
show their nobleness by daring the most diffi- 
cult paths. And even if marriage were but 
one weed-iield of temptation, — as these mis- 
erable pedants say, who have never tried it or 
misused it to their own shame, — it would be 
a greater deed to conquer its temptations than 
to fly from them in cowardly longings after 
ease and safety."^ "It is as unreasonable," 
says Dr. Johnson, " for a man to go into a 
Carthusian convent for fear of being immoral, 

1 Charles Kingslej. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 19 

as for a man to cut off his hands for fear he 
should steal." ^ 

Poverty. In India, the Fakirs go stark 
naked. In Paris, the Lazarists borrow the 
clothing which they wear. Money is the 
means which we employ to satisfy our ma- 
terial wants. By thrusting it contemptuously 
from'us, we cast a reproach upon the values 
which it represents. Hence voluntary pov- 
erty was one of the first expressions of the 
monastic spirit. It has always been regarded 
as the sign of a special and extraordinary 
sanctity. " Freedom from every lien which 
binds us to the body " w^as the watchword of 
the monk; and he found it much easier to 
renounce wealth altogether, than to employ 
it judiciously and generously. The most 
that can be said against this practice is, that 
it does violence to nature. God seems to 
have planted in every human breast the desire 
to provide for the future. Competency is a 
duty : only the morally lazy can desire pov- 

1 Boswell's Life of Johnson. 



20 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

erty. He who does not wish to be rich can- 
not love his fellow-men. If the monk would 
employ himself actively, make the best of all 
his powers, apply the result *of his labors to 
the amelioration of the lot of his neighbor, 
devoutly trust in God for the future, and rely 
upon Him who sends the " rainy days " to 
supply him with a shelter, his course would 
be a most commendable one. But when he 
resolves neither to have nor earn money, and 
sinks his soul in idle contemplation of the 
Supreme Being, he makes a great mistake. 
It is worthy of notice that a great majority 
of the monks have never been severely tempted 
with regard to worldly possessions ; and some 
one has remarked, that people who affect to 
despise wealth wish to revenge themselves 
against the injustice of fortune by manifest- 
ing a contempt for that of which they are 
deprived. " It is a secret means of insuring 
one's self against the degradation of poverty. 
It is a roundabout way of reaching that con- 
sideration to which we are unable to, attain 
by means of riches." 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 21 

Others are willing to sacrifice great worldly 
possessions for an odor of distinguished sanc- 
tity in this life, or hoping to drive a good 
bargain with the future one. " Some, with- 
out any doubt," says a Catholic writer, 
" without any inclination for solitude, have 
consecrated themselves to the Lord out of 
pure pride." The Council of Orleans found 
it necessary to decree " that no monk should 
abandon, out of ambition or pride, the mon- 
astery to which he belongs, for the purpose of 
constructing a cell by himself." 

The monk has always wished to distinguish 
himself by a particular garb ; and the more 
striking it was, the better he seemed to like it. 
It is doubtful if any monastic order could 
long exist without some such outward badge 
of holiness. Even the " Sisters of Charity," 
in some respects a most admirable organiza- 
tion, betray a weakness in this direction. 
Look at their deep collars, white bonnets, 
and heavy cross, and then judge how much 

1 Massillon. 



22 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

vanity may possibly have io do with their 
piety. Why are not people satisfied to do 
good in an unostentatious manner? Why 
can they not practise the heavenly virtues, 
and at the same time discharge their daily 
duties? We are satisfied that self-love lies 
at the bottom of all such institutions ; granted, 
a high order of self-love. The first impulse 
of a man, spiritually moved, may be to con- 
nect himself with a monastic order; but, as 
his religious experience deepens, he sees the 
refined selfishness of such a course, and real- 
izes that his heaviest cross is to be sought in 
the world, and in bearing with the infirmities 
of his fellow-men. How the cheap virtue of 
a Sister of Charity sinks into insignificance 
when compared with the heroism of the 
thousands of pure-minded women who re- 
main in society and employ themselves — to 
take a single instance — in the education of 
youth I People like to advertise their good- 
ness ; they wish to belong to a " good Socie- 
ty" — one that makes a business of being 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 28 

good. A flowing gown, or a white linen 
bonnet and collar, make it so easy to love 
God and be just. It is not difficult to act 
nobly when one is all alone. How often we 
make resolutions which we fail to keep ! The 
effort, the struggle which we make, — that is 
virtue: resolution has no positive worth. 
Now this difference between resolving and 
doing is just the difference between passive 
and active virtue, — between doing good with 
your every-day clothes on, and doing good 
with your distinctively pious habiliments on ; 
between going into a monastery, and dis- 
charging your duties among your fellow-men. 
But, at another time, perhaps, we may 
show how the monks have always repudiated 
their vows of poverty whenever the munifi- 
cence of their superstitious patrons has ren- 
dered it profitable, and to what contemptible 
chicanery and artifice they have resorted, in 
order to reconcile their personal poverty with 
the scandalous opulence of the monasteries 
to which they belonged. 



24 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

Obedience. Obedience was made by Saint 
Benedict (529) the first of monkish virtues. 
Saint Bernard (1113) said to the monks of 
his order, " If an angel from heaven should 
command me to do any thing contrary to my 
rule, I would refuse an obedience which would 
render me a transgressor of my own vows." 
Ignatius Loyola (1532) enjoined obedience 
to superiors, even to the commission of mor- 
tal sins. Hence the Jesuits have often perjured 
themselves; they have lied and calumniated 
whenever it promised to advance the interest 
of their order. The danger of such an insti- 
tution, to the state, may easily be imagined. 
To this principle, boldly pushed to the end, 
the Jcvsuits may possibly ow^e their expulsion 
from every European country. A Roman 
citizen once said, " If my brother should 
order me to burn the capitol, I would burn 
it." It is needless to say that the physical 
liberty of that Roman was forthwith re- 
strained. A French writer, already cited,^ has 

1 M. Jean Baptiste Thiers. 



THE SPIRIT OP THE MONKS. 25 

entered into a lengthy discussion of the causes 
which justify a monk or nun in breaking their 
claustral vows. He devotes one chapter of 
his book to the consideration of the subject, 
" Whether the ' ReJigieuses ' are justified in 
leaving their convent in case of a great fire 
which threatens to destroy the building." 
Several church fathers are quoted to support 
the affirmative of this question. Many in- 
stances are also adduced which would seem 
to justify it. 

Another chapter considers, whether an un- 
healthy climate, or danger of an inundation, 
is cause sufficient for such abandonment ; and 
the author shows conclusively that bad air is 
not a sufficient justification for such a step, 
inasmuch as, in many cases, the sites of these 
cloisters have been chosen expressly on this 
account. (See in particular St. Bernard, 
Epistle 321, and, better still. Epistle 384). 
" Freshets " are decided to be inadequate ; 
but "inundations" have several fathers and 
one or two popes on their side. 

3 



26 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

Still another chapter considers, whether 
monks and nuns are justified in leaving their 
retreats when the walls are threatened with 
overthrow; and here the writer shows con- 
clusively again that several councils, and a 
large number of popes and prelates, have de- 
cided this to be sufficient cause for taking such 
a step. Finally, the question is asked whether 
famine justifies such abandonment; and the 
answer is a negative one. 

" To be dead to myself, to have no longer a 
will of my own, no will, no temper, no opin- 
ions," ^ such is the Catholic doctrine of obe- 
dience. Let us see how it agrees with that 
of the New Testament. If the Divine Mas- 
ter has taught obedience to kings and princes, 
where has he prescribed that servile subordi- 
nation which robs a man of all independence, 
all dignity, all personality ? In what passage 
of the Sacred Book is it taught that a creature 
made in the image of God ought to obey like 
a corpse, perinde ac cadaver.'^ Such a rule 

1 Bourdaloue, Retraite Spirituelle. 

2 Rule of the Jesuits. 



THE SPIRIT OP THE MONKS. 27 

of life may be found in the Code of Brah- 
minism ; but the New Testament speaks, on 
the contrary, of the glorious liberty of the 
children of God, (Rom. viii. 2), and recom- 
mends us to rest firm in the liberty to which 
Christ has called us (Gal. v. 1). Christian 
perfection is the sister of progress and liberty. 
Thus far we have dwelt upon the first or 
negative form of asceticism : let us now pro- 
ceed to consider the second or active expression 
of the monastic spirit. The monk sinks him- 
self in contemplation of the perfect good. To 
be plunged in God, and grow with him like a 
flame, — that is the mystic's purpose. He 
loses sight of the distinction which must 
always exist between self-consciousness and 
God-consciousness. The relation which ex- 
ists between these two will ever remain a 
mystery. One thing, however, is certain, — 
man's individuality should never be lost sight 
of. Mysticism (from jmuoo, to see with closed 
eyes) forgets tha^ fact; it arises from an im- 
perfect, that is to say, a one-sided, development 



28 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

of consciousness. Self-contemplation plunges 
man into the abyss of self-deification and 
self-satisfaction. Self-examination, when car- 
ried to excess, is a species of vanity. We 
flatter ourselves when we think to discover a 
great many faults and errors in our own 
hearts. Hence the pernicious character of 
such " spiritual exercises " as those prescribed 
by the Jesuits. Do not probe your motives 
too deeply. Some one has remarked that it is 
as injudicious and unprofitable as pulling up a 
plant for the purpose of examining its roots. 
If you search your heart too closely, the 
chances are that you will conclude in the end 
that there is no such thing as virtue ; and in 
this event there are two alternatives, — turn 
fatalist or monk. You will abandon your- 
self to sensuality and utter godlessness, adopt- 
ing the atheist's motto, " Let us live while we 
live, for to-morrow we die ; " or you will be 
drawn into ascetic practices of the most hope- 
less kind. Do not brood over the secret springs 
of action; forget yourself, if it be possible. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 29 

Forget, in your zeal for others, that you have 
a soul of your own to save. Know that there 
is but one crime in the world, — to remember 
yourself; and there is but one virtue, — to 
forget yourself. 

All that has been said upon this subject 
should be taken with its proper limitations. 
The New Testament recommends self-exam- 
ination (Matt. vii. 3 and 1 Cor. xi. 31) ; not 
as an end^ however, but only as a means. It 
should prepare us for the better performance 
of our duties towards our fellow-men. For 
" if we would judge ourselves, we should not 
be judged." Let an hour, now and then, be 
set aside for meditation and self-examination. 
Never enter upon any great work without 
having devoted a short time to solitude. " One 
hour of secret meditation and silent prayer," 
says a Persian poet, " is of more worth than 
seventy thousand years of outward worship." 
This would be an excellent practice for the 
clergyman. Let him do it before preparing 
his sermon rather than afterwixrds ; otherwise 

3* 



80 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

honesty may oftentimes compel him to sacri- 
fice the results of a week's labor. Christ went 
into the wilderness and fasted forty days, just 
before entering upon his ministry. The world 
has never produced a great man, nor a noble, 
virtuous woman, who was not educated to 
some extent by solitude. In those quiet mo- 
ments, God ordained them for their high and 
noble office. But society is not to be aban- 
doned : it is man's native element. " Man is 
more social than any bee." Solitude is a bath 
which cleanses us from the impurities of active 
life, and refreshes and invigorates us for a new 
effort. " Whosoever delights altogether in sol- 
itude is either a wild beast or a God" (Aris- 
totle). Contemplation makes us acquainted 
with ourselves. By this means we fix our 
human vocation in the eve ; but never lose 
sight of its mediate character. " Protracted 
solitude," says De Wette, " brings with it emp- 
tiness of spirit, for the spirit can enrich itself 
only in active life." To fast is good. Fast; 
but do it because it is quite impossible to 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MONKS. 81 

think or pray upon a full stomach : one falls 
asleep. The genuine observation of a day of 
national fasting and prayer would be pro- 
ductive of much good. But never run away 
from the world : it is an act of moral cow- 
ardice. The monk seeks extravagant methods 
of atonement : why not try that most severe 
of all, — the practice of virtue under severe 
temptation ? Why not remain in society and 
help purify it ? If you are to crucify the flesh, 
let the world be your cross, and there is none 
like it, — and do not rob the world of its 
cross by taking yourself out of it. If God's 
providence is manifested in any one thing 
more than another, it is in the gradual up- 
lifting of his people, in the civilization and 
moral education of society. If you abandon 
his grand experiment in this life, he will 
abandon your soul in the life which is to 
come. " You deserted from my standard 
there below : I have pensions laid up only for 
those who bravely met the foe, fought their 
way through the temptations of life, and rose 



32 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

victorious above them all. Devote yourself 
to any form of self-culture that you choose ; 
but know that complete forgetfulness of self, 
and devotion to the good of others, is the only 
virtue which I recognize in man." The re- 
moteness from God, implied by words such as 
these, is much more to be feared than the 
most terrible conception of a material hell. 

Man is a creature of two worlds, — the 
material and the spiritual. He belongs to 
both of them. We are citizens as well as 
pilgrims, — citizens of this world, pilgrims of 
the next. We are born of the earth, and 
should not live outside of the world, but in 
it. We ought not to abstain from the exer- 
cise of our passions : it is our duty to work 
through them. The monk attempts to steal 
around the world, and therefore is cowardly. 
We must force our way through in order to 
win the hero's crown. The ruined cloisters 
of Europe remind one that moral cowardice 
was once nourished and applauded. 

" But men who abandon themselves to a 



THE SPIRIT OF ^THE MONKS. 33 

contemplative life do no harm, and think 
only on God : have they no merit in his eyes ? 
No ; for if they do no harm, neither do they 
perform any good, and hence they are useless : 
moreover, not to do good is already to do evil. 
God wishes man to think of him, but not of 
him alone, since he has given man duties to 
perform towards his fellow-men. He who 
consumes himself in meditation and prayer 
has no merit in the sight of God, since his 
life is wholly personal and useless to hu- 
manity; and God will demand account of 
him for the good which he has not done.'*^ ^ 

1 Allan Elardec, Le livre des Esprits. 

NoTB. — This chapter appeared in the form of an article 
in the Universalist Quarterly for Jan. 1870. 



PART SECOND. 

HISTORY OF THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 



ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PREPARATOKY REMARKS CONCERNING THE 
ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF ANCIENT CIVIL- 
IZATIONS.! 

Importance of method in the study of history. Which is the 
oldest civilization ? The Chinese. The Cushites. The Ary- 
ans. The emigrations of the last two families traced by 
means of a chart. 

'nr^RUE to the principle laid down at the 
commencement of the last chapter, I 
begin the search after the first development 
of the monastic spirit by a few inquiries into 
the origin of the human race. For society 
was no sooner formed than men began to 
withdraw themselves from it: they sought 

1 Max Miiller, Essays on the Science of Religion. John 
D. Baldwin, A.M., Pre-Historic Nations. New York : Har- 
per & Brothers. 1869. 

P. F. Stiihr. AUgemeine Geschichte der Religionsfor- 
men der heidnischen Volker. (das Urvolk.) 

4 



38 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

the solitude, the wilderness, the desert. In 
exploring this field it is of the utmost impor- 
tance that we proceed methodically. Unless 
we adopt some general plan in the study of 
history, we labor almost in vain. That which 
is read to-day, for want of arrangement or 
association, is forgotten to-morrow. Goethe 
says, " Contents without method leads to 
straggling thought ; method without contents 
to empty theorizing ; matter without form to 
a burdensome knowledge ; form without mat- 
ter to a vain delusion." ^ Early in life one is 
possessed by the desire to trace nationalities 
back to some common origin, — to arrange, to 
classify, and to compare all the peoples of 
which we have any account. We seek to 
derive one from the other, to construct a 
chronological tree or river ; and, in the attempt 
to realize our idea, we cover sheets of paper 
with all sorts of historical plans. In a short 

1 Gehalt ohne Methode fuhrt 2nir Schwarmerei, Methode 
ohne Gehalt zum leeren Kliigeln, StoflP oline Form zum 
beschwerlichen "Wissen, Form ohne Stoff zu einem hohlen 
Wahnen. 



ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. 89 

time we become involved in the most inex- 
tricable confusion; and our last diagram 
reminds one of an Egyptian or Cretan laby- 
rinth. At this stage in our studies we take 
up, perhaps, some work like " Nott and Glid- 
den on the Types of Mankind," and here we 
learn, — alas, for our plan I — that '' the human 
race was scattered broadcast over the face of 
the earth like vegetables and animals." This 
puts an end, for the time being, to all of our 
chronological aspirations. 

A more judicious selection of authors, how- 
ever, soon resuscitates the old opinion and 
along with it our former purpose. By the 
aid of comparative philology, we are soon 
able to trace all existing races back to three 
or four original sources ; while the same great 
elements of human nature which characterize 
them all, encourage ns to believe that some- 
where in the hoary past the ancestors of the 
billion souls which now inhabit the earth 
have slept together in one common cradle, 
and spoken the same tongue. 



40 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

In any historical map or chart which may- 
be constructed, that stream which is intended 
to represent the Chinese Empire will always 
flow uninterruptedly from top to bottom with- 
out tributaries or outlets — if we make two 
exceptions. 

About 1259 the Mongols overran China, 
but were expelled in the following century. 
Nearly two hundred years later, the Manchoo 
Tartars conquered the country, and have" re- 
mained its masters ever since. 

The Chinese is the only specimen of a 
primitive language now in existence, and is 
monosyllabic in its form. It has a written 
literature which claims to be nineteen centu- 
ries older than the Christian era. China has 
never been an aggressive power; and, until 
quite recently, she has had a wonderfully 
simple " Foreign Policy." As a natural con- 
sequence, she has exerted little or no civilizing 
influence upon the nations by which she is 
surrounded. 

Two great waves of civilization have swept 



ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. 41 

over the world in past times ; and to these we 
propose to confine our attention. The earli- 
er proceeded from the south and spread east 
and west ; the later had its starting-point in 
the north and propagated itself west and south. 
The authors of the first of these movements 
were the Cushites of Southern Arabia, the 
ancient Ethiopia of the Greeks and Romans. 
The latter was carried on by the Aryan race, 
that inhabited, originally, the northern portion 
of Asia or Southern Siberia, which at that time 
must have had a mild and favorable climate.^ 
One of these migrations took place almost 
entirely by land ; while the other was alto- 
gether naval in its character. 

Baldwin is undoubtedly right in maintain- 
ing that the Cushites preceded the Aryans by 

1 Within a few years, several mastodon or elephants have 
been found imbedded in the ice of Southern Siberia, and one 
was in such a state of preservation that its flesh was imme- 
diately devoured by the dogs which accompanied the ex- 
ploring party. This shows quite conclusively that the 
climate of Northern Asia was once much milder than at the 
present time. Perhaps the migration of the Aryan race 
was brought about by some great change which the tem- 
perature subsequently underwent. 

4* 



42 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

many centuries in India, Persia, Greece, Italy, 
and Spain. Let us, then, attempt to indicate 
the movements of these two streams of civili- 
zation. 

* If the reader will turn to the chart facing 
title-page, and trace with a pencil the route 
pursued by each of these two great families 
in its migration, it will help him to understand 
the whole subject of this chapter. The letters 
in the text refer to corresponding letters on 
the chart. 

Unmistakable evidences point to the ex- 
treme antiquity of the Cushite race in Arabia. 
Recent developments, which have been gained 
from the ruins of this country, will justify us in 
supposing that Southern Arabia was in a state 
of civilization not later than 10,000 B.C. (a)} 
The Cushites were a nation of navigators, 
and carried on their colonization by means 

1 By experiments made at the statue of Rameses in 
Egypt, Bunsen has shown quite conclusively that the Mle 
valley was peopled by a civilized race more than 11,000 
years b.c, Cushite civilization must be many centuries 
older than that of Egypt. 



ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. 43 

of their ships. Cushite civilization extended 
to the valleys of the Nile and Euphrates not 
later than 7000 B.C. (&), and to India very soon 
afterwards (c). Of this there can now be lit- 
tle doubt. The language of the inscriptions 
found in these countries bears a marked re- 
semblance to that which has been discovered 
in Southern Arabia. Professor Rawlinson, in 
his work on Herodotus, uses the following 
words, " Recent linguistic discovery tends to 
show that a Cushite or Ethiopian race did, in 
the earliest times, extend itself along the shores 
of the Southern Ocean from Abyssinia to In- 
dia. The whole peninsula of India was peo- 
pled by a race of this character before the 
influx of the Aryans ; it extended along the 
sea-coast through the modern Beloochistan and 
Kerman ; the cities on the northern shores of 
the Persian Gulf are shown by the brick in- 
scriptions found in its ruins to have belonged 
to this race." These adventurous navigators 
found civilization among all the people whom 
they visited, but from whence it came is more 



44 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

than can now be ascertained. Bunsen says, 
the origin of man antedates the Christian Era, 
more than 20,000 years ;^ and, if so, civilization 
must be equally as old, for there is reason to 
believe that this was the original state of man- 
kind. There is no instance on record where 
a savage people have risen to civilization with- 
out outside assistance, although the reverse 
may sometimes have been true. 

Herodotus says the Phoenicians founded 
Tyre 2760 B.C. (c?), and they probably went to 
Carthage about the same time (e). Now we 
know that these Phoenicians were a part of 
the old Cushite race which forced its way 

1 The question may arise, " How far may the antiquity 
of man possibly be carried back 1 " Geologists have found 
no human remains in any period prior to that which is 
now forming. To this belong the allurial deposits of the 
Mississippi delta, and perhaps the lower half of the penin- 
sula of Florida. The former is computed to have been in 
progress at least 100,000 years ; while the latter is said by 
Agassiz to have occupied more than 130,000 years in its for- 
mation. Consequently, any theory which does not carry 
the origin of the human race further back than about 100,000 
years, if well established by scientific investigation, ought not to 
challenge our credulity. But thus far, the verdict of cool 
science, as opposed to such theories, is — Not proven. 



ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. 45 

northward into Canaan, and finally settled 
upon the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (/). 

The Greeks, even before Herodotus, were 
accustomed to trace their civilization to Egypt; 
and this was perhaps the first attempt ever 
made towards the discovery of a primitive 
race. Thus it will be seen that " Pre- Historic 
Times " was a problem which agitated the 
world at a very early date. 

The superiority, in point of antiquity, of 
Chaldean over Egyptian civilization, was soon 
made evident; while recent investigation has 
shown quite conclusively that Arabia was the 
cradle of them both. Cushite civilization was 
carried to Greece from Egypt 3000 B.C. (^), 
and to Italy at nearly the same time (li). It 
had passed from North Africa over into Spain 
not later than 5000 B.C. (^), from whence it 
found its way soon after into France {h). The 
rock-cut temples of India, Phoenicia, Egypt, 
Greece, and Italy, all resemble those found in 
Arabia and are of immense antiquity. 

Having thus briefly pointed out the time 



46 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

and manner in which Cushite civilization 
spread over a large part of Europe, South- 
western Asia, and Northern Africa, we will 
now attempt to indicate the course pursued 
by the Aryan race in its migrations. (See 
again frontispiece). 

" Before the beginning of traditional history, 
the Aryan tribes lived north of the Himalaya 
mountains with the ancestors of the Greeks, 
Italians, Germans, Celts, and Sclavonians " 
(Max Miiller). 

We shall be justified in placing that period 
at 5000 B.C. (x). The whole family dwelt, as 
yet, under one roof; and the division may not 
have taken place until a long time after the 
date above mentioned. The race divided into 
two branches, which have been called the 
north and south branches. The former pro- 
ceeded in a north-westerly direction, and con- 
quered Europe ; the latter passed southward, 
and spread out over India, Persia, and North- 
ern Arabia. The Hindoos, although the old- 
est branch, were probably the last to leave the 



ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. 47 

parental roof, and the Vedas must have been 
written in Upper India several centuries after 
their arrival, say 1500 B.C. (y). 

Long before this, however, a violent schism 
had taken place between the Brahmins and 
the followers of Zoroaster, — the first great 
Aryan reformer, the Martin Luther of Brah- 
minism, he who did not hesitate to brand the 
priests of those times as Antichrist, if we 
may speak thus, and turned many of their 
gods into his devils. But separation did not 
take place until after they had dwelt together 
for some time in Hindostan, where those who 
have since been known as Magians or Fire- 
Worshippers, at last bade adieu to India and 
passed over into Persia. 

Their sacred writings, the Zend-Avesta, 
were already in existence 400 B.C. (v) ; for 
Alexander is said to have destroyed the books 
of the Zoroastrians. 

The Persian records, it should be borne in 
mind, go far back of Persia. Long before she 
appeared as a nation, Bactria — the probable 



48 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

scene of Zoroaster's life — was the capital of 
an Aryan kingdom where the Zend and San- 
scrit branches lived together and used a com- 
mon language. The latter dwelt many centuries 
in Upper India previous to the completion of 
the Vedas, as some of the older portions were 
written 2400 B.C. ; while the Avesta may have 
been preserved as oral tradition long after the 
Zoroastrians arrived in Persia. The people 
whom the Aryans found in Southern Asia, it 
should not be forgotten, were all enjoying 
a high degree of civilization ; and Southern 
India and Persia held out for a long time 
against Aryan invasion and amalgamation. 
The Yedas show that these people had large 
cities and cultivated the arts; and it is not 
difficult to identify them with the old Cush- 
ite race, whose migrations we have already 
traced. 

The migration of the northern branch- of 
the Aryan family cannot be so precisely in- 
dicated. Although the first to set out, they 
did not reach Germany until about the begin- 



ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. 49 

ning of our era (m) ; and from thence they 
passed into England where they date from 
the Saxon conquest, 449 A.D. (n). Here they 
had been preceded, however, by the Celts, who 
were a race of mixed origin as will be ex- 
plained further on. In Greece and Italy they 
arrived at a very early date (o) ; and the my- 
thologies of those countries embody, without 
doubt, something of the dimly remembered 
history of their wanderings. In the latter 
country, they were known by the name of 
Pelasgians. The Etruscans, a Cushite race 
without doubt, had preceded them, however, 
as we have already pointed out. 

If we are to judge from the analogy of lan- 
guage, wie conclude that the Aryans, who first 
came to Spain, were Italians (r). Here a 
blending took place between them and the 
old Cushite race, from whence sprang the 
Celts, a people who soon passed northward 
to the shores of Ireland,^ where they arrived 

* Prior to this the Eormorians had come to Ireland from 
Africa, sometime during the Age of Bronze, or about 3000 

B.C. 



50 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

many centuries before the beginning of our 
era, say about 2000 B.C. (s), and soon crossed 
over into Scotland (t). About this time, an 
emigration of the Celts took place from Spain 
to France ; and from there they passed across 
the channel into England and Wales. 

In the foregoing brief summary of the ori- 
gin and progress of ancient Cushite and Aryan 
civilization, it is not possible to attain to 
any considerable degree of accuracy in the 
matter of dates ; but we may feel quite certain 
that the stream flowed much in the same 
manner and direction as that which has been 
indicated. 

Having now cleared the ground of a vast 
amount of historical rubbish, and systematized 
our knowledge somewhat, we may venture to 
approach more nearly the real subject which 
we have at heart. 



CHAPTER II.i 
PAGAN MONKS. 

Great ANTIQUITY OF monasticism. As old as religion; Two 
sources of information, — monumental and biblical ; The testi- 
mony of the former; The Sacred Books of the Ancients ex- 
amined. Chaldea. The Nabatean Agriculture. Azada (about 
4500 B.C.), the first great monk. India. The Vedas; The 
Law of Manu examined; Its monkish character; Gotama 
Buddha; Examination of the monkish code called the Winaya 
Pitaka. Persia. The Zend-Avesta. China. The Chou- 
King; Confucius a monk. Greece. The Order founded 'by 
Pythagoras; the Pagan Jesuits; Monasticism as it exists 
to-day in the East ; Striking similarity between Hindoo monks 
and those, of Christendom. 

T^HE origin of monasticism will always be 
enveloped in mystery. " Its history is 
shrouded in the same obscurity as the source 
of the mighty streams upon the banks of which 
the first ascetics commenced the practice of 

1 D. Chwolson. Ueber die Ueberreste der altbabylon- 
ischen Literatur. St, Petersburg, 1859 (reviewed by Rev. 
CD. Miller, in The Universalist Quarterly for July, 1869). 
M. le Baron de Sainte Croix. Recherches Historiques 
et Critiques sur les Mysteres du Paganisme. Paris, 1817. 
R. Spence Hardy. Eastern Monacliism. London, 1850. 



62 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

their austerities." It has been remarked, in 
the previous chapter, that men had no sooner 
begun to come together in society, than indi- 
viduals began to separate themselves from 
it, and sought the solitude and idleness. 
Some were led to take this step on account 
of a contemplative disposition ; others because 
they were too proud to bend themselves to 
the extent which is necessitated when men 
dwell together, or too indolent to discharge 
the duties which society imposes, or too sen- 
sitive to sustain the sight of those evils which 
it involves. The former class was always com- 
paratively small; for, as has been well said, 
" man is, naturally, more social than any bee." 
It should be confessed, however, that, in re- 
mote antiquity, we find sages and philoso- 
phers following this mode of life. Voltaire 
says, " The older a nation is, just so much 
older is its religion ; " ^ and we may add, " The 
older the religion, the older its ascetic prac- 

i No man was ever less an atheist than Voltaire. He as- 
serts at least forty times in his voluminous works, that there 



-PAGAN MONKS. 53 

tices ; " for they were among the first forms 
assumed by the religious impulse, and not 
among the later and better ones. They be- 
long to the religion of the passions and emo- 
tion, and not to the religion of reason 
Monasticism, then, is as old as religion itself; 
for it does not gain favor with the progress of 
new ideas, but is gradually falling in the esti- 
mation of all. 

In accordance with this view of our sub- 
ject, we begin the search after the origin of 
asceticism by examining the most ancient 
records of the human race which can be 
found. 

There are two sources from which our in- 
formation maybe drawn, — first, the inscrip- 

has never been a race or tribe in tlie history of the world 
which did not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being. 
The Jesuits and the atheists were the particular objects of 
his irony. The former, in order to protect themselves, de- 
nounced Voltaire to the people as an atheist, and forbade 
them to read his works. If one questioned the doctrine of 
the immaculate conception, or rebuked the corrupt practices 
of the priesthood in times gone by, these guardians of the 
public morahty lost no time in blackening his character, so 
that no one should dare to examine his writings. 
5* 



64 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

tions which have been discovered in South- 
western Asia and Egypt ; second, the sacred 
and historical books of ancient peoples. Until 
quite recently, the former, which is the older 
record, has remained a sealed volume to us ; 
but, since the beginning of the last century, 
much has been done towards deciphering its 
contents. Ultimately, these remains must 
afford a vast fund of information concerning 
the manners, customs, politics, and religions 
of the nations to whom we are indebted for 
them. The inscriptions found in Assyrian 
and Mesopotamian ruins, alone, amount to 
" whole libraries of annals and works of sci- 
ence and literature." Sir Henry Rawlinson 
puts forth this statement : " On the clay tab- 
lets which we have found at Nineveh, and 
which now are to be counted by thousands, 
there are explanatory treatises on almost every 
subject under the sun." It is to be under- 
stood, however, that only an exceedingly small 
portion of these inscriptions has as yet been 
deciphered. 



PAGAN MONKS. 55 

Fortunately, many of them are written in 
three languages, Assyrian, Persian, and Scy- 
thian : the last two very much resembling the 
dialects now spoken in Persia and Scythia ; 
and to this last circumstance, we are indebted 
for our knowledge of Chaldean hieroglyphics. 

In Egypt, a fortunate accident gave us the 
key to the hieroglyphics of that country. In 
1799, a French artillery officer discovered, near 
the village of Rosetta, a stone which bore 
three inscriptions. The upper one was in 
hieroglyphics, the middle in enchorial or popu- 
lar characters, and the lower in Greek. This 
invaluable tablet afterwards fell into the hands 
of Sir William R. Hamilton, by whom it was 
placed in the British Museum, instead of the 
Louvre as had been originally intended.^ 

The tablej;s discovered at Nineveh and in 
Egypt, abound in representations of priests 
and religious ceremonies. We know that 
many of the priests shaved their heads, and 
wore always a peculiar habit, which, in early 

A Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History. 



56 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

historic times, we are told was white. They 
taught that the body must be kept pure by 
fasting and other ascetic observances. Their 
diet was very severe, and beans were particu- 
larly abhorred (for sanitary reasons, it is pre- 
sumed). Pythagoras, who visited Egypt, 
borrowed this antipathy, and introduced it 
into the rules of his order, as will hereafter 
appear. Herodotus informs us, that after a 
battle the heads of the Egyptians were found 
to be almost as hard as a stone, while those 
of the Persians were so soft that they could 
be fractured with ease. From infancy, the 
former practised shaving the head, while the 
latter were accustomed to wear a kind of 
head-dress. 

The information which we are able to glean 
from monumental sources is exceedingly mea- 
gre ; but if the " rock-cut temples " of Arabia 
and India could speak to us, we might expect 
to hear a story of midnight vigils, macerations 
of the body, long-protracted silence and medi- 
tation. Nearly 600 B.C., the artificial caves 



PAGAN MONKS. 57 

of India were occupied by Buddhistical monks; 
and there is conclusive evidence that they had 
served the Brahmins for a like purpose. The 
manner of their construction leads to the sup- 
position that they were originally intended 
for monkish abodes ; and, if so, the exceeding 
great antiquity of monasticism can no longer 
be doubted. These temples and caves are 
the oldest monuments of the countries in 
which they are found. 

For exact and reliable information, how- 
ever, we are obliged to resort to the written 
books of the ancients. For many centuries 
it has been known that there existed a wcJtk, 
in Arabic translations, called " The Nabatean 
Agriculture," which was capable of throwing 
great light upon the history of ancient Baby- 
lon. Scholars have frequently alluded to it 
in a general way ; but it remained for a cele- 
brated German critic to give the world a tol- 
erably comprehensive idea of its contents. 
Professor Chwolson published the results of 
his researches at St. Petersburg in 1859 ; and 



68 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

both Max Miiller and Ernest Renan have also 
examined the work in a cursory manner. It 
seems to have been written at Babylon about 
the time of Nebuchadnezzar, or 600 B.C. ; and 
some idea of its extensiveness may be formed 
from the statement of Professor Chwolson, 
who says that it would make more than 2,400 
quarto pages. 

Here we find a careful history of Chaldea, 
which reaches back nearly, if not quite, five 
thousand years before the beginning of our era. 
It has long been maintained, that Abraham 
was a Chaldean ; and hence the history of 
the Jews down to his time, was probably bor- 
rowed from that of his native country .^ We 
are not surprised, then, to find in this work a 

1 Sir Henry Rawlinson is reported to have announced, 
at the last meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, that such 
progress has been made in the collection and arrangement 
of the Nineveh inscribed fragments, as to make it beyond 
doubt that they would be able to derive the whole of the his- 
tory given in the book of Genesis, down to the time of Abra- 
ham, from these ancient documents. The Babylonian docu- 
ments give a very exact geographical account of the Garden 
of Eden, and amply illustrate the Flood and the Tower of 
Babel. 



PAGAN MONKS. 59 

circumstantial account of a great man by the 
name of Adami, the whole description of whose 
character, as well as the time in which he 
lived, justifies us in identifying him with the 
Adam of Gen. ii. 19, 20. Mr. Miller says, in 
his interesting article already alluded to, " But 
the more we examine the works before us 
from Professor Chwolson's pen, the stronger 
grow our suspicions that many of the persons 
alluded to by Qutami (author of The Nabatean 
Agriculture), are identical with the biblical 
patriarchs of similar name; differently dressed 
up, it is true, and playing a somewhat differ- 
ent rdle^ from what we find in the book of 
Genesis." 

It seems to us more probable, that the Jews 
borrowed their characters from the Chaldeans, 
and not vice versa. Abraham brought Adam 
with him from Chaldea, as the Priests and 
the Levites brought the devil out of the Baby- 
lonian captivity. The Jews were a nation 
of borrowers ; borrowed from everybody with 
whom they came in contact, and lent to 



60 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

no one. The Jewish religion was a close 
corporation in more than one sense of the 
word. 

Long before Adami, however, there appears 
to us the noble image of Azada, apostle of 
Saturn ; and we are informed that he " founded 
the religion of renunciation or asceticism." 
" His partisans and followers were the sub- 
jects of persecution by the higher and culti- 
vated classes ; but to the mass of the people, 
on the contrary, they were the objects of the 
highest veneration." Such has always been 
the lot of the monks. We are forced to be- 
lieve that Azada was no more the founder of 
Chaldean asceticism, than Buddha was of 
that of India, or St. Benedict of that of Chris- 
tendom; but he is the first great monk of 
whom we have any account, since planet-wor- 
ship is the oldest form of religion that is 
known. 

This work carries us still farther back into 
antiquity; never once abandoning, however, 
the path of strictly historical times, and, at 



PAGAN MONKS. 61 

the highest point, shows us a people who 
were civilized and employed the arts. 

Dhagrit, who lived about 2000 B.C., was un- 
doubtedly an advocate of ascetic life. He 
inveighs against the godlessness of those who 
believed it possible to preserve the human 
body from decay after death by the employ- 
ment of certain natural agents. " Not by 
natural means," warmly replies Dhagrit, " can 
man preserve his body from corruption and 
dissolution after death : but only through good 
deeds, religious exercis^s^ and offering of sac- 
rifices, by invoking the gods by their great 
and beautiful names ; hy prayers during the 
nighty and fasts during the day^'' Thus 'Dha- 
grit goes on, in his pious zeal, to give the 
names of various saints of Babylonian an- 
tiquity, whose bodies had long been preserved 
after death from corruption and change, and 
says, " These men had distinguished them- 
selves by piety, by abstemiousness, and by 
their manner of life, which resembled that of 

angels ; and the gods, therefore, by their grace, 

6 



62 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

had preserved the bodies of these men from 
corruption ; whereby those of later times, in 
view of the same, were encouraged in piety, 
and in the imitation of those holy modes of 
life." 1 All of this reminds one very much of 
St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary, 
whose body was wonderfully preserved a long 
time after his death. 

Thus far, the sources from which we have 
drawn our information are but little known, 
and their complete reliability may possibly be 
called in question. From this point, however, 
we shall make use of none but the most re- 
liable authority, and our conclusions will rest 
upon historical records of unquestionable char- 
acter. 

The oldest books in existence, not including 
the Hebrew Scriptures, are the Veda'^ and 
the Law of Manu^ (sacred books of the Brah- 
mins), the Zend-Avesta (sacred book of the 

1 We employ Mr. Miller's translation, since the original 
text is not now at hand. 

2 Rig Veda, translated by H. H. Wilson, London,' 1850. 

3 Les Livres Sacres de T Orient, G. Pauthier, Paris, 1840. 



PAGAN MONKS. 63 

Persians or Zoroastrians),^ and the Chou- 
King2 (sacred book of China). 

In addition to these, we have the Tripitaka, 
three baskets (sacred book of the Buddhists), 
which is little more than a manual of monkish 
usages, committed to writing about 100 B.C. 
There is some doubt as to which is the 
older, — the Hebrew Scriptures or some por- 
tions of the Rig- Veda. 

With these new sources of information, let 
us continue, then, our examination. With re- 
gard to the early Brahminical writings, we 
find that to be true which we should have 
naturally expected. The Rig- Veda, portions 
of which may be assigned to a period not later 
than 2400 B.C., consists mainly of hymns and 
prayers ; it is a liturgy. This must have al- 
ways been the first form of sacred literature. 
Notwithstanding this fact, many parts of the 
work bear the stamp of asceticism ; and more- 
over, as has been observed by Mr. Hardy, 

1 Zend-Avesta von Spiegel, Leipzig. 

2 Les Livres Sacres de I'Orient, G. Pautliier, Paris, 1840. 



64 THE MONKS BEFOEE CHRIST. 

" The practice of asceticism is so inter- 
woven with Brahminism, under all the phases 
it has assumed, that we cannot realize its ex- 
istence apart from the principles of the as- 
cetic." 1 At an early period of the present era 
of manifestation, Dhruva, the son of Utta- 
napada, the son of Manu Swayambhuva, who 
was " born of and one with Brahma," began 
to perform penance, as enjoined hy the sages, 
on the banks of the Yamuna. While his mind 
was wholly absorbed in meditation, the mighty 
Hari, identical with all natures, took possession 
of his heart. Vishnu being thus present in 
his mind, the earth, the supporter of elemental 
life, could not sustain the weight of the 
ascetic. 

" The celestials called Yamas, being exces- 
sively alarmed, then took counsel with Indra 
how they should interrupt the devout exer- 
cises of Dhruva ; and the divine beings termed 
Kushmandas, in company with their king, 

1 It should be remembered, too, that Brahminism is 
probably much older than its written records. 



PAGAN MONKS. 65 

commenced anxious efforts to distract his 
meditations. One, assuming the semblance 
of his mother, Suniti, stood weeping before 
him, and calling in tender accents, * My son, 
my son, desist from destroying thy strength 
by this fearful penance ? What hast thou, a 
child but five years old, to do with rigorous 
penance ? Desist from such fearful practices, 
that yield no beneficial fruit. First comes the 
season of youthful pastime ; and when that is 
over, it is the time for study : then succeeds 
the period of worldly enjoyments ; and lastly, 
that of austere devotion. This is thy season 
of pastime, my child. Hast thou engaged in 
these practices to put an end to existence? 
Thy chief duty is love for me : duties are ac- 
cording to time of life. Lose not thyself in 
bewildering error: desist from such un- 
righteous actions. If not, if thou wilt not 
desist from these austerities, I will terminate 
my life before thee.' 

" But Dhruva, being wholly intent on seeing 
Vishnu, beheld not his mother weeping in his 

6* 



66 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

presence, and calling upon him ; and the illu- 
sion crying out, ' Fly, fly, my child : the hid- 
eous spirits of ill are crowding into this terrible 
forest with uplifted weapons,' quickly disap- 
peared. Then advanced frightful rakshasas, 
wielding terrible arms, and with countenances 
emitting fiery flame ; and nocturnal fiends 
thronged around the prince, uttering fearful 
noises, and whirling and tossing their threat- 
ening weapons. Hundreds of jackals from 
whose mouths gushed flame, as they devoured 
their prey, were howling around, to appall the 
boy, wholly engrossed by meditation. The 
goblins called out, ' Kill him, kill him ; cut 
him to pifeces ; eat him, eat him ; ' and mon- 
sters, with the faces of camels and crocodiles 
and lions, roared and yelled, with horrible cries, 
to terrify the prince. But all these uncouth 
speeches, appalling cries, and threatening 
weapons, made no impression upon his 
senses, whose mind was completely intent 
on Govinda. The son of the monarch of the 
earth, engrossed by one idea, beheld uninter- 



PAGAN MONKS. 67 

ruptedly Vishnu seated in his soul, and saw 
no other object." 

This description would apply admirably 
to the Christian monks who inhabited the 
Thebaid. The desert has always been the 
abode of asceticism, whose devotees, in their 
struggle against the flesh, peopled its sands 
with horrible monsters of every kind, -=— with 
devils, hobgoblins, and giants, — who (in the 
minds of the people) have held possession 
ever since. 

The Vedas commanded that the tonsure 
should be performed ; but, so far as known, it 
prescribes no rules with regard to the monastic 
life. It should be kept in mind, however, that 
only a small portion of the work has yet been 
translated. The four Vedas, when collected, 
form eleven huge quarto volumes; while the 
Rig- Veda — which has been translated in 
part, by Wilson — is contained in a single 
duodecimo of about five hundred pages. 

It is not until we reach the " Law of Manu," 
that our feet touch firm ground. Now we 



68 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

know where we are. The exact time when 
this work was committed to writing cannot 
be determined. Sir Wm. Jones says 800 
B.C.; and Max Miiller remarks that it is the 
only work in Sanscrit the early date of which, 
assigned to it by Sir William Jones, from the 
first, has not been assailed. It is, without 
doubt, much older than this. The absence of 
any mention of the doctrine of the Trinity 
would assign it to a date at least 1000 B.C. ; 
and the rules which it contains for the conduct 
of monastic life must have been in use many 
ages before they were committed to writing. 
A large portion of this work is taken up by 
regulations to be observed by those who wish 
to attain to the ultimate good by the practice 
of monastic observances. The rule of St. 
Benedict itself does not afford a more de- 
cided proof of the existence of the ascetic life. 
It is divided into twelve books. The Sixth 
Book is entitled " Duties of the Anchorite 
and of the Ascetic Devotee." The subject 
of the Eleventh Book is " Penitences and 



AGAN MONKS. 69 

Expiations." The Dwidjas, for whom these 
rules are principally laid down, are described 
as a sort of monk who wore tonsure, girdle, 
carried staff, asked alms, fasted, lacerated the 
body, and dwelt, for the most part, in the des- 
erts and forests. We have space but for a few 
illustrations, which will suffice, however, to 
show the character of this work. As Sir Wil- 
liam Jones's translation is not at hand, we 
render a few passages from that of M. Des- 
longchamps, a French scholar of considerable 
note. From the Sixth Book, " Duties of the 
Anchorite and of the Ascetic Devotee," we 
quote as follows : — 

IF 24. The Dwidja, who dwells alone, should de- 
liver himself to austerities, increasing constantly in 
their severity, that he may wither up his mortal 
substance. 

Hf 27. Let him receive from the Brahminical 
anchorites, who live in houses, such alms as may be 
necessary to support his existence.^ 

i The case was similar in early Christian times. Simon 
the Stylite, and k host of others, were thus provided for. 



70 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

IF 49. Meditating with delight on the supreme 
soul, seated, wanting nothing, inaccessible to all sen- 
sual desire, without other society than his own soul, 
let him live here below in the constant expectancy 
of the eternal beatitude. 

^ 75. In subduing his organs, in accomplishing 
the pious duties prescribed by the Vedas, and in sub- 
mitting one's self to the most austere practices, one 
is able to attain, here below, to the supreme end ; 
which is to become identified with Brahma.^ 

IT 87. The novice, the married man, the anchorite, 
and the ascetic devotee, form four distinct orders, 
which derive their origin from the superior of the 
house. 

IT 91. The Dwidjas who belong to these four 
orders ought always to practise with the greatest 
care, the ten virtues which compose their duty. 

IF 92. Eesignation, the act of rendering good for 
evil, temperance, probity, purity, the subjugation of 
the senses, the knowledge of the Sastras, that of the 

1 Their whole doctrine of spirit, of the Supreme Being, 
and the relation of man to God, must have made the Brah- 
mins ascetics from the very first. So that, when the origin 
of this religion can be ascertained, we may say, without fur- 
ther examination, Monasticism was there, and gave birth 
to it. 



PAGAN MONKS. 71 

supreme soul, veracity, and abstinence from choler ; 
such are the ten virtues in which their duty consists. 

From the Eleventh Book, " Penitences and 
Expiations," we make the following ex- 
tracts : — 

IF 211. The Dwidja who undergoes the ordinary 
penitence, called Pradjapatya, ought to eat, during 
three days, only in the morning ; during the next 
three days only at night ; during the following three 
days, he should partake only of such food as persons 
may give him voluntarily, without his begging for it ; 
and, finally, let him fast three days entirely. 

IF 214. A Brahmin, accomplishing the severe 
penitence (Tap takritchhra), ought to swallow nothing 
but warm water, warm milk, cold clarified butter, and 
warm vapor, employing each of them three days in 
succession. 

IF 215. He who, master of his senses and per- 
fectly attentive, supports a fast of twelve days, makes 
the penitence called Paroka, which expiates all of 
his faults. 

IF 216. Let the penitent who desires to make the 
Tchandrayana, having eaten fifteen mouthfuls on the 
day of the full moon, diminish his nourishment by 



72 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

one mouthftil each day during the fifteen days of 
obscuration which follow, in such a manner, that, on 
the fourteenth day, he shall eat but one mouthful ; 
and then let him fast on the fifteenth, which is the 
day of the new moon ; let him augment, on the con- 
trary, his nourishment by one mouthful each day, 
during the next fifteen days, commencing the first 
day with one mouthful. 

IF 239. Great criminals, and all other men guilty 
of diverse faults, are released from the consequences 
of their sins by austerities practised with exacti- 
tude. 

IT 251. By reciting the Hovichyantiya or the 
Natamanha sixteen times a day for a month, or by 
repeating, inaudibly, the hymn Poroucha, he who has 
defiled the bed of his spiritual master is absolved 
from all fault. 

The Vanaprastha were Brahminical ancho- 
rites who inhabited the deserts, lived on vege- 
tables, devoted themselves to contemplation, 
macerated the body, fought with devils 
and giants (as a natural consequence), and 
were insensible to heat and cold. As the 



PAGAN MONKS. 73 

procreation of at least one child is strictly- 
enjoined by Brahminism, some took their 
wives along, but never had intercourse with 
them except at such times as they were most 
likely to conceive. They consumed disgusting 
things, and left the deserts only to beg. They 
were called later by the Greeks Gymnoso- 
phists ; and, notwithstanding they went per- 
fectly naked, no throb or involuntary move- 
ment was ever seen in any part of their 
bodies.^ Women who were barren oftentimes 
came and touched their shrivelled member, 
hoping thereby to become fruitful. Not the 
slightest emotion was noticed at such times.' 
These old ascetics would have regarded with 
contempt the practices of Christian monks, 
who were, indeed, children when compared 
with their Eastern ancestors. 

What St. Benedict became to the monks 
of Christendom, Gotama Buddha was to those 

1 Description of the Character, Manners, and Customs 
of the People of India, by the Abbe J. A. Dubois, Phil., 
1818. 

7 



74 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

of India. Eleven hundred and fifty-three years 
before the former enunciated his law from the 
top of Mont Cassim, — that Sinai of western 
monasticism, — Buddha, the Moses of eastern 
monachism, was born at Kapilawastu. Up to 
this time the Brahminical ascetics had been 
without a settled rule or organization. The 
Law of Manu specified the manner of con- 
ducting many austere observances; but each 
monastery was accustomed to arrange its 
own inner life and stood quite independent 
of any other. 

The growth of monasticism was something 
after this manner. First came austere prac- 
tices without separation from society: then 
the devotee sought the solitude ; this form was 
that of the anchorite (amxcoQsiv^ to retire.) 
Some one who was particularly celebrated 
for the holiness of his life, or more inventive 
than others in methods of bodily torment, 
soon began to gather admirers and imitators 
about him. They came and dug their caves 
or built their huts in the neighborhood of his ; 



PAGAN MONKS. 75 

and gave to him, in early Christian times, the 
name of abbas, or father. Thus arose the 
second form of life, and those who followed 
it were called cenobites (aoivog, common ; ^log, 
life.) 

Sometimes the community was assembled 
under one roof; at other times, as in the 
Thebiad, they dwelt apart. As yet, however, 
their mode of life was by no means settled or 
uniform. Now was the time for a law-giver ; 
and the people of India found theirs in the 
person of Buddha (the Enlightened), who was 
born 624 B.C. 

He manifested early a love for contem- 
plation, and was determined to the ascetic 
mode of life by seeing a monk who carried 
an alms-bowl, and whose external appearance 
spoke of inward peace and composure. His 
father was king of Kapilawastu, who, having 
detected the dreamer in his son, married him, 
while yet quite young, to a princess who gave 
birth to a child before Buddha divorced him- 
self from her. The circumstances which led 



76 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

him to take this step are thus narrated by J. 
Barth^lemy Saint Hilaire.^ 

" One day when the prince, with a large retinue, 
was driving through the eastern gate of the city, on 
the way to one of his parks, he met on the road an 
old man, broken and decrepit. One could see the 
veins and muscles over the whole of his body ; his 
teeth chattered ; he was covered with wrinkles, bald, 
and hardly able to utter hollow and unmelodious 
sounds. He was bent on his stick ; and all his 
limbs and joints trembled. * Who is that man ? ' 
said the prince to his coachman. ' He is small and 
weak ; his flesh and his blood are dried up ; his 
muscles stick to his skin; his head is white ; his 
teeth chatter ; his body is wasted away ; leaning 
on his stick he is hardly able to walk, stumbling 
at every step. Is there something peculiar in his 
family, or is this the common lot of all created 
beings ? * 

" ' Sir,' replied the coachman, * that man is sinking 
under old age ; his senses have become obtuse, suf- 
fering has destroyed his strength, and he is despised 
by his relations. He is without support and useless ; 

1 Le Buddha et sa Religion. 



PAGAN MONKS. 77 

and people have abandoned him, like a dead tree in 
a forest. But this is not peculiar to his family. In 
every creature, youth is defeated by old age. Your 
father, your mother, all your relations, all your 
friends, will come to the same state : this is the 
appointed end of all creatures.' 

" * Alas ! ' replied the prince, * are creatures so ig- 
norant, so weak, and so foolish, as to be proud of the 
youth by which they are intoxicated, not seeing the 
old age which awaits them ? As for me, I go away. 
Coachman, turn my chariot quickly. What have I, — 
the future prey of old age, — what have I to do with 
pleasure ? ' And the young prince returned to the 
city without going to his park. 

" Another time the prince was driving through the 
southern gate to his pleasure-garden, when he per- 
ceived on the road a man suffering from illness, 
parched with fever, his body wasted, covered with 
mud, without a friend, without a home, hardly able 
to breathe, and frightened at the sight of hiiliself 
and the approach of death. Having questioned his 
coachman, and received from him the answer which 
he expected, the young prince said, * Alas ! health is 
but the sport of a dream, and the fear of suffering 

7* 



78 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

must take this frightful form. Where is the wise 
man who, after having seen what he is, could any- 
longer think of joy and pleasure ? ' The prince turned 
his chariot and returned to the city. 

" A third time he was driving to his pleasure-gar- 
den through the western gate, when he saw a dead 
body on the road, lying on a bier, and covered with 
a cloth. The friends stood about, crying, sobbing, 
tearing their hair, covering their heads with dust, 
striking their breasts, and uttering wild cries. The 
prince, again calling his coachman to witness this 
painful scene, exclaimed, ' Oh, woe to the youth, 
which must be destroyed by old age ! Woe to health, 
which must be destroyed by so many diseases ! Woe 
to this life, where a man remains so short a time ! 
If there were no old age, no disease, no death ; if 
these could be made captive for ever!' Then, be- 
traying for the first time his intentions, the young 
prince said, * Let us turn back : I must think how to 
accomplish deliverance.' 

" A last meeting put an end to his hesitation. He 
was driving through the northern gate on the way to 
his pleasure-gardens, when be saw a mendicant who 
appeared outwardly calm, subdued, looking down- 



PAGAN MONKS. 79 

wards, wearing with an air of dignity his religious 
vestment, and carrying an alms-bowl. * Who is this 
man ? ' asked the prince. ' Sir,' replied the coach- 
man, ' this man is one of those who are called hhik- 
shus, or mendicants. He has renounced all pleasures, 
all desires, and leads a life of austerity. He tries to 
conquer himself. He has become a devotee : with- 
out passion, without envy, he walks about asking 
for alms ? ' 

" ' This is good and well said,' replied the prince. 
* The life of a devotee has always been praised by 
the wise. It will be my refuge, and the refuge of 
other creatures : it will lead us to a real life, to hap- 
piness and immortality.' 

" With these words, the young prince turned his 
chariot, and returned to the city." ^ 

Buddha then declared to his father and 
wife his determination to become a recluse, 
and soon after escaped from his palace in the 
night while the guards had fallen asleep. 

The religion which he established, after a 
lapse of two thousand years, is now professed 

1 Translated in Muller's Essays on the Science of Keli- 
gion. 



80 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

by one-third of the inhabitants of the entire 
globe. One king is said to have founded 
eighty-four thousand monasteries for his or- 
der, that being the number of discourses 
which Buddha pronounced during his life- 
time. The " Law " which he gave his order 
is contained in the first of the three Pitakas, 
and was orally handed down until about 100 
B.C., when it was committed to writing in the 
island of Ceylon. It is called the Winaya 
Pitaka, and contains rules for every conceiv- 
able monastic observance. It is composed of 
forty-two thousand two hundred and fifty 
stanzas. To alms-giving Buddha attached 
an extraordinary importance. He declares 
that " there is no reward either in this world 
or in the next that may not be received 
through alms-giving." Ten centuries later, 
Chrysostom wrote, " Hast thou a penny ? pur- 
chase heaven. « Heaven is on sale, and in the 
market, and yet ye mind it not! Give a 
crust, and take back paradise ; give the least, 
and receive the greatest ; give the perishable, 



PAGAN MONKS. 81 

and receive the imperishable; give the cor- 
ruptible, and receive the incorruptible. Alms 
are the redemption of the soul. . . . Alms-giv- 
ing which is able to break the chain of thy 
sins. . . . Alms-giving, the queen of virtues, 
and the readiest of all ways of getting into 
heaven, and the best advocated there." ^ Ac- 
cording to the Winaya Pitaka, " The wise 
priest never asks for any thing; he disdains 
to beg: it is a proper object for which he 
carries the alms-bowl; and this is the only 
mode of solicitation." Celibacy, poverty, the 
tonsure, a particular garb, confession of sins, 
&c., are made compulsory. The vows, how- 
ever, are not taken for life; and a monk may 
retire from the order if he finds it impossible 
to remain continent. A novitiate is provided 
for ; and there are " Nuns " or " Sisters " who 
live in houses by themselves. 

The novice usually begins her connection 
with the order in the school, where she is 
sent while yet quite young. Foundlings 
1 Taylor's Ancient Christianity. 



82 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

were 6ften given to the early Christian mon- 
asteries, by whom they were reared for the 
ascetic life. No Buddhist can attain to Nir- 
wana, unless he has served a time as an 
ascetic. 

There are five modes of meditation specified 
by the Pitaka, — 1. Maitri; 2. Mudita; 3. 
Karuna ; 4. Upeksha ; 5. Asubha. We read 
of a monk who was so profoundly sunk in 
contemplation, that he did not wash his feet 
for thirty years; so that at last the divine 
beings, called dervas, could smell him a thou- 
sand miles off. 

The monk refrains from severely injuring 
his body ; so that he may practise, as long as 
possible, his ascetic rites. Their mode of 
reasoning on this subject is illustrated by the 
following quotation from the Milinda-prasna, 
a work in Pali and Singhalese : — 

Milinda. " Do the priests respect the body ? " — 
Nagasena, " No." — Milinda. " Then why do they 
take so much pains to preserve it? Do they not 



PAGAN MONKS. 83 

by this means say, ' This is me, or miner ' ? " — 
Nagasena. " Were you ever wounded by an ar- 
row in battle ? " — Milinda. " Yes." — Nagasena. 
" Was not the wound anointed ? Was it not rubbed 
with oU ? And was it not covered with a soft band- 
age ? " — Milinda. " Yes." — Nagasena. " Was 
this done because you respected the wound, or took 
delight in it ? " — Milinda. " No ; but that it might 
be healed." — Nagasena, " In like manner, the 
priests do not preserve the body because they re- 
spect it, but that they may have the power required 
for the keeping of the precepts." 

The Zend-Avesta, written about 500 B.C., 
contains, so far as we have been able to dis- 
cover from a hurried examination, no allusion 
to ascetic rites; but this fact would go no 
farther to disprove the existence of monastic life 
among the Persians, than the absence of such 
allusion from the New Testament would dis- 
prove the existence of Jewish monks. This 
work is not of an historical character; and 
what was said about the Vedas is particularly 
true of it, — prayers and hymns make up 



84 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

almost its entire contents. The followers of 
Zoroaster originally dwelt wuth the Brahmin- 
ical or Sanscrit branch of the Aryan family ; 
and we know that monas'ticism was rife 
among them before the separation took 
place. It is not likely that they ever shook 
off this institution, which is as universal as 
religion or drunkenness. We are told that 
there was a class of " solitaries " among them. 
" According to the Desatir, the Dobistan, 
and the old Iranian histories, there was a great 
king of that branch of the Aryan people 
known as Kai-Khuero, who was a prophet 
and an ascetic. He had no children; and, 
after a ' glorious reign of sixty years,' he ab- 
dicated in favor of a subordinate prince, also 
an ascetic, who, after a long reign, resigned 
his throne to his son Gushtasp. It was during 
the reign of Gushtasp that Zoroaster ap- 
peared. Gushtasp was succeeded by Boh- 
man, his grandson." These were not kings 
of Persia, but they reigned at Balkh, and lived 
many centuries before Persia became an inde- 



PAGAN MONKS. 85 

pendent kingdom. This would place the origin 
of asceticism anterior to Zoroaster, who lived, 
the Greeks said, five thousand years before the 
Trojan war, or six thousand before Plato, — 
an antiquity greater than that assigned to it 
by the " Nabatean Agriculture." 

An examination of the Chou-King, the 
sacred book 'par excellence of China, is with- 
out fruit for our purpose. It is a significant 
fact, however, that the word "priest" is 
written in Chinese " Cha-men," or " Sang- 
men," which mean, respectively, one who 
exerts himself, ^ or one who restrains himself. 
The Chou-King was transcribed by Confu- 
cius 2 about 480 B.C., and to hira we owe its 
preservation. It is only one out of a large 
number of books, upon religious topics, which 
must have existed in his time. Lao-Kiiin, 
who lived several generations before Confu- 

1 Remarkable similarity between the deriration of this 
word and that of ascetic (from aoKtlv, to exercise, or prac- 
tise gymnastics). 

2 Life and Teachings of Confucius, by James Legge, 
D.D. PhUa., 1867. 

8 



86 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

cius, was a great ascetic, advocated perfect 
freedom from passions, and passed much of 
his time in the mountains. It is known that 
Confucius taught no new doctrines, but in- 
sisted upon a more faithful observation of the 
ancient law.^ He was born 550 B.C., and died 
478 B.C. At nineteen years of age he divorced 
himself from his wife, after she had given 
birth to a son, to devote himself to study and 
meditation ; and his last days were passed in 
a quiet valley, where he retired with a few of 
his followers. He fasted quite frequently, and 
advocated many other monkish observances ; 
such as retirement, contemplation, and agri- 
cultural employment. (Schott, Werke des 
chinesischen Weisen Kong-Fu Dsii. Halle, 
1826. Compare also Meng Tseu ed. Stanis- 
laus Julien 1. 1, c. 5, par. 29 ; c. 6, p. 29.) 

Mencius, an apostle of Confucius, born 400 
B.C., says, " Though a man may be wicked, 

1 It is a fact worthy of notice that the man who, perhaps, 
resembled Jesus Christ the most of any one in history, 
should have laid no claims whatever to originaUty. 



PAGAN MONKS. 87 

yet if he adjust his thoughts, fast, and bathe, 
he may sacrifice to God." 

Of Grecian monasticism, until the time of 
Pythagoras, we can now ascertain but very 
little. It was borrowed, without doubt, from 
the Egyptians. The mysteries of Bacchus 
and Ceres were copied after those of Osiris 
and Isis. These latter, in some respects, re- 
sembled Freemasonry more, than they did 
monastic orders. They forbade, however, all 
sensuous enjoyment, enjoined contemplation, 
long-protracted silence, &c. Moreover, it is 
probable that Pythagoras found here many 
of those ascetic observances which he after- 
wards introduced into his own order. Bun- 
sen says that the rules for the conduct of 
Egyptian priests, as described by Chaeremon 
and preserved by Porphyry, remind one of 
the Law of Manu and the Vedas. 

More than two thousand years before Igna- 
tius Loyola assembled the nucleus of his great 
" Society " in a subterranean chapel in the 
city of Paris, there was founded at Crotona in 



88 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

Greece an order of monks whose princi])les, 
constitution, aims, methods, and final end en- 
title them to be called, I think, the " Pagan 
Jesuits." This institution owed its origin to 
Pythagoras, who was born at Samos about 
600 B.c.^ Until fifty years of age, his time 
was employed in travelling in foreign coun- 
tries and preparing to found his order, during 
which time he visited almost every part of 
the known world. Having returned to the 
island of Samos, he began at first to lead the 
life of an anchorite, passing much of his time 
in a solitary cave. Among the masses, he 
was held in the greatest reverence. One day 
he bought a net full of fish from a fisherman, 
and then threw them all back into the sea 
again, saying that it was wrong to kill fish. 
To this the people added, that he gave the 
exact number of the fish while the net was 
yet under water. He was reported, at other 

1 Pythagoras und die Pythagorasage, Eduard Zeller in 
his Vortrage und Abhandlung. Leipzig, 1865. For a more 
full account of Pythagoras and his doctrine, see the works 
of Barthelemy, Meiner, Hissmann, Tiedmann, Tenneman, 
and Buhle. 



PAGAN MONKS. 89 

times, to have healed the sick, raised the dead, 
stilled the waves of the sea with a word, and 
it was said that he gave himself out for Apollo, 
who had assumed the human form. 

Pythagoras employed still several years in 
preparing to found his order, which was called 
the Pythagorean Union or Fraternity. The 
cloister at Crotona may be regarded as the 
first monastery or as the Abbey of this order, 
from whence all the other branches derived 
their authority. There were three hundred 
members in this house alone ; while others 
were rapidly established all over Greece, as 
well as in Carthage, Cyrene, Sicily, and Afri- 
ca. The three vows of poverty, chastity, and 
obedience, were imposed. A novitiate, which 
lasted three years, was provided. The wear- 
ing of a certain garb was compulsory ; and 
the institution possessed altogether a monkish 
character. On being admitted into the house, 
the novice gave up all the money or other val- 
uables which he possessed ; he was treated 
with the greatest indifference ; he was not fa- 



90 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

vored with a single look, and was left entire- 
ly to himself.i 

The severest punishment ever inflicted was 
expulsion from the order, when the money 
paid on entering was returned to the expelled, 
and a gravestone was erected for him, to show 
that he was dead to the order. 

Since physical action is necessary to the 
preservation of the health, gymnastic exercises 
were introduced; and hence, probably, the 
name which was afterwards applied to them 
(«(7xj/Ta(, athletes). That there was no consid- 
erable difference between their mode of life, 
and that of early Christian monks,^ is shown 

1 How much this resembles the treatment of early Chris- 
tian novices. " Isidore, an Egyptian monk, when asking to 
be admitted into the house, said to the abbot, ' I am in 
your hands, as iron in the hands of the smith.' The abbot 
ordered him to remain without the gate, and to prostrate 
himself at the feet of every one who passed by, begging 
prayers for his soul, as for a leper. This command he 
obeyed, and remained in this humiliating position for the 
space of seven years. The first year he had a violent con- 
flict ; the second, tranquillity ; and the third, pleasure." — 
(Hardy.) 

2 Each monastery prided itself on keeping several ath- 
letes, who often disguised themselves and went to places 



PAGAN MONKS. 91 

by the fact that the name ascetic was inherited 
by the latter, and remains in use even to this 
day. 

Among the followers of Pythagoras, there 
was an order of females, called " Sisters," 
whose care was entrusted to his daughter. 

Some of the observances prescribed by him 
were quite peculiar. From time to timej a 
delicious banquet was prepared. All the 
monks seated themselves at the table, and 
enjoyed for a while the sight and odor of the 
viands ; then every one arose, without having 
touched the dishes, sent the food to the slaves, 
and fasted the whole day. 

For beans they had an unutterable horror. 
They preferred to suffer death rather than 
even touch them. Long after the death of 
Pythagoras, Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, 
desired to see some Pythagoreans and con- 
verse with them, perhaps for the purpose of 

where games were being celebrated, and, having surpassed 
all competitors, threw aside their mask, thus exposing their 
monkish garb to view. They returned to the monastery, 
and related the incident with great relish. 



92 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

discovering the members of that order in his 
own kingdom. With this object in view, he 
sent a body of troops into Greece, who fell 
upon twelve persons in the vicinity of Meta- 
pont, the character of whom was betrayed by 
their garb. The soldiers immediately gave 
chase to the strangers, who promptly took 
to flight, and would undoubtedly have made 
their escape, had not the way been ob- 
structed by a large field of beans. Brought 
to bay, they stubbornly resisted until all but 
two of their number (an old man, and a wo- 
man great with child) were cut down. These 
latter were carried to Syracuse ; but since no 
information could be gained from them con- 
cerning the order to which they belonged, 
Dionysius caused them to be put to the rack. 
Upon this the woman bit off her tongue for 
fear that she might be weak enough to divulge 
that which she ought not, and the man re- 
mained silent until the last. It is possible 
that their abstinence from beans, without any 
alleged reason, was merely to illustrate there- 



t 

PAGAN MONKS. 93 

by more clearly their implicit obedience to 
their rule. 

That which constituted their particular re- 
semblance to the " Society of Jesus," was the 
great emphasis which they placed upon the 
duty of obedience to superiors, their opposi- 
tion to democratic institutions, their political 
intrigue, and their fate. They had, likewise, 
" Lay Brethren," who mingled in active life. 

Pythagoras was the General of the Order, 
towards whom all of the members manifested 
the most blind and implicit obedience. The 
words " He said it " were regarded in the 
same light as one of their mathematical dem- 
onstrations ; and they swore by no higher name 
than that of their " Master " (Jurare in verba 
magistri). The order, like that of the Jesuits, 
was founded on monarchial principles ; and 
the wave of democracy swept it away. All 
of the most ancient writers agree that the 
Pythagoreans made themselves obnoxious by 
their attempts to alter the constitutions, in the 
countries where they were established, against 



94 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

the will of the people and to the detriment of 
their rights. 

A similar policy afterwards pursued by the 
Jesuits, caused them to be driven out of Cath- 
olic Bavaria and Switzerland;^ while but 
recently in Spain, casting their lot, as usual, 
with the cause of absolute monarchy, they 
have shared its fate. Their political intrigues 
have resulted in their expulsion from every 
European country. 

In Crotona itself, the storm against the 
Pythagoreans first broke out. As the order 
was assembled to confer concerning the con- 
duct of a war, the monastery was surrounded 
by the populace and set on fire. Pythagoras 
escaped ; but the greater number of his follow- 
ers perished in the flames. He wandered over 
many countries, " warned off" wherever he 
went, and finished his life, at a very advanced 
age, in a temple at Metapont, where he fled 

i An article inserted in the Constitution of Switzerland, 
with the consent and by the desire of the Catholic Cantons, 
forbids the Jesuits establishing themselves in the countrj. 



PAGAN MONKS. 95 

for protection, — some say murdered, others 
say starved. 

It is probable that the Pythagoreans owed 
their untimely end, not alone to their monarch- 
ial principles, but to their evident intention 
of placing themselves in possession of the 
reins of government, as did the Jesuits in Par- 
aguay. The resemblance goes still farther. 
After the destruction of the order, and the 
death of its founder, many attempts were 
made to re-establish it, in spite of the hatred 
of the people and the mistrust of rulers. The 
ex-Pythagoreans conducted themselves with 
the utmost discretion, and cultivated the strict- 
est morality. The most learned among them 
continued their researches, and left many val- 
uable writings to posterity. Their philosophi- 
cal mantle, however, fell upon a new school, 
among whom Epaminondas and Plato are 
usually reckoned. 

Having now completed the general survey 
of ancient asceticism, let us glance for a mo- 
ment at this phase of life as it has existed 



96 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

among the inhabitants of India in recent 
times. 

The " Law of Manu," as has already been 
shown, contains rules for nearly all the monk- 
ish observances ; such as the tonsure, fasting, 
celibacy, mendicancy, novitiate, &c. We are 
told that Hindoo devotees " swing on hooks in 
honor of Siva ; hang themselves by the feet, 
head-downwards, over a fire ; roll on a bed of 
prickly thorns ; jump on a couch filled with 
sharp knives ; bore holes in their tongues, and 
stick their bodies full of pins and needles." ^ 
Some of the " Fakirs " (Arabic, fakhar, poor) 
hold their arms so long in one position that 
they become permanently stiffened ; and those 
who stretch their hands up over their heads 
lose the power to lower them. Others bend 
their bodies until they crook at a right angle ; 
and there are those who keep the hand clasped 
together so long that the nails grow into the 
flesh and come out on the other side. Some 

1 Article on Brahminism, by Dr. J. F. Clarke, in At- 
lantic Monthly, May, 1869. 



PAGAN MONKS. 97 

of them never sit or lie down, but are sup- 
ported by a rope placed for that purpose; 
others lay fire upon their head, and thus burn 
the scalp to the bone. Hassan al Bassri says, 
a fakir resembles a dog in nine things, — 

1st, He is always hungry. 

2d, He has no sure abiding place. 

3d, He watches by night. 

4th, He never abandons his master even when 
maltreated. 

5th, He is satisfied with the lowest place. 

6th, He yields his place to whoever wishes it. 

7th, He loves whoever beats him. 

8th, He keeps quiet while others eat. 

9th, He accompanies his master without ever 
thinking of returning to the place which he has left. 

There are, at least, 1,000,000 Mohammedan 
and Hindoo fakirs in India alone, besides many 
other religious ascetics. Some of them live 
isolated, sleep on the ground and go naked. 
Instead of wood they use dry cow-dung for 
making a fire : since the cow is a sacred animal 
among them this is regarded as a particularly 

9 



98 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

meritorious practice. Another class rove about 
in companies. They choose a chief, — who 
wears a chain attached to one of his legs, — 
and practise the most rigid mortifications. In 
their weekly meetings, some of their number 
are always selected to hold a red-hot piece of 
iron between their teeth until it becomes cold ; 
while others make deep incisions in their bodies 
with sharp-edged instruments. 

" A fakir will sometimes take it into his head to 
trundle himself along like a cart-wheel for a couple 
of hundred miles or so. He ties his wrists to his 
ankles ; gets a tire, composed of chopped straw, mud, 
and cow-dung, laid along the ridge of his backbone ; 
a bamboo staff passed through the angle formed by 
his knees and elbows by way of an axle, — and off 
he goes ; a brazen cup, with a bag and a hubble-bub- 
ble, hang like tassels at the two extremities of the 
axle. Thus accoutred, he often starts on a journey 
which will occupy him for several years. On ar- 
riving in the vicinity of a village, the whole popu- 
lation turn out to meet and escort him with due 
honors to the public well or tank, where he unbends 
and washes off the dust and dirt acquired by per- 



PAGAN MONKS. 99 

ambulating several miles of dusty road. After as- 
certaining, by minute inquiries, tbe state of the 
larders of the assembled villagers, he takes up his 
quarters with the man who is best able to entertain 
him. When the supplies begin to fail, he ties his 
hands to his heels again, gets a fresh tire put on, and 
is escorted out of the village with the same for- 
malities as accompanied his entrance." ^ 

D'Herbelot estimates that there were 800,000 
Mohammedan 2 and 1,200,000 Hindoo fakirs 
in India. 

" To abstract one's self from matter, to renounce 
the gratification of the senses, to macerate the body, 
is thought the true road to felicity. They torture 
themselves with self-inflicted torments ; for the body 
is the great enemy of the soul's salvation, and they 
must beat it down by ascetic mortifications." 

The world is all delusion. The Vedanta 
declares, — 

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica ; Art. Fakirs. 

2 The original principles of Mohammedanism were un- 
favorable to monastic life ; and religious mendicants did not 
appear among them until six hundred years after Moham- 
med, or about the thirteenth century of our era. 



100 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

" From the highest state of Brahma to the lowest 
condition of straw, all things are delusion." 

To illustrate how far this mysticism goes 
among the Brahmins, we quote the following 
from Alger's " Oriental Poetry " : — 

" Ribhu and Nidagha are conversing, when the 
king rides by. The following dramatic dialogue 
ensues : ' Inform me, Nidagha, which of these is the 
elephant and which the king.' ' Why, Ribhu, you 
will observe that the elephant is underneath ; the 
king is above him.' ' Yes ; but what is meant, Nid- 
agha, by underneath, and by above ? ' Nidagha knocks 
Ribhu down, jumps upon him, and says, ' I am above, 
and you are underneath.' * Very well,' cries Ribhu, 
* now tell me which is you, and which is I.' '* 

The " Bonzes " (from the Japanese, busso, 
which means pious), who live in China, Bur- 
mah, Japan, &c., are priests of Buddha. They 
practise celibacy, live in monasteries, shave the 
head, never speak in public, lead a life of con- 
templation, and sell " relics." There are "Bon- 
zies" (females), who have a superior of their 
own sex, and profess the same virtues and way 



PAGAN MONKS. 101 

of life as the men. The education of young 
girls is often intrusted to them. 

The first Roman- Catholic missionaries who 
forced their way to the East were exceedingly 
surprised to find such a striking resemblance 
between the monastic customs of Buddhism 
and their own church. The adoption of pag- 
eantry in public worship led to their further 
consternation. This perfect coincidence they 
never fail to attribute to the machinations of 
the devil. Let us translate a few paragraphs 
from a work published at Paris, so long ago as 
1724, by " le Sieur Jovet, Chanoine de Laon," ^ 
which distances Father Hue by more than a 
century. In speaking of the island of Ceylon, 
he writes, — 

" There are cloisters full of monks who pray con- 
tinually, and who form processions dancing and sing- 
ing. They are shaved like our monks, carrying a 
sort of chaplet, and murmuring always some prayer. 

1 L'Histoire des Religions de Tons les Royaumes du 
Monde. Tliis work may be seen in the Municipal Library 
of the city of Nice, France. 

9* 



102 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

I have seen, in these monasteries, gilded chapels 
with the statues of men and women who had lived 
more virtuously than others. These statues are cov- 
ered with cloth of gold and silver : some of them 
bear infants in their arms, who carry large candles, 
which burn night and day. The monks sometimes 
form a procession, going two and two. Their supe- 
rior is clothed in cloth of gold, and carries a golden 
sceptre. They are preceded by persons bearing 
wax candles and lighted torches ; and, before saying 
their prayers, they prostrate themselves upon the 
earth." 

Again : " On fete days the people enter the 
churches ; and, having lighted a small piece of wood, 
they place it before the image upon the altar, and 
then, making a low obeisance, they retire. Their 
monks burn incense, twice a day, before an image. 
The monasteries, which are always crowded, are, for 
the most part, situated upon mountains. Some of 
them contain five or six hundred monks ; and, in 
some of the cities, there are more than five thousand. 
They are divided into bands of ten and twenty. The 
oldest commands, and inflicts punishment with blows, 
not to exceed twenty or thirty. These monks eat no 
meat or flesh, shave the face and head, and are for- 



PAGAN MONKS. 103 

bidden to hold any conversation with women. After 
their first tonsure, a mark is made upon the arm 
which can never be effaced. Some of them work, 
and some beg ; while a number receive small pen- 
sions from the government. They have always chil- 
dren in the monastery, who come to be taught to 
read and write ; and, when they have attained to the 
age of discretion, if they wish to be shaved they 
can remain in the house." 

Thus far the reader may imagine that a 
E/Oman- Catholic monastery is being described ; 
but his error will immediately appear from the 
following sentences, which contain the prin- 
cipal, if not the only, difference between the 
two institutions : — 

" As to the belief of these people, they are per- 
suaded that he who does right will be recompensed, 
and that he who does wrong will be punished. Fur- 
ther than this, they know nothing of preaching or 
mysteries. They never dispute about religion : all 
believe the same thing ; and the same practices prevail 
everywhere in the kingdom. Many Mohammedans 
live among them who enjoy entire liberty in the ex- 
ercise of their religion." 



104 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

The people described above belong to a 
heathen tribe which inhabits Oriental China, 
the kingdom of Coray or Corree. The same 
writer speaks thus of Japan : — 

" The Bonzes confess their sins ; and the priests 
occupy themselves in chanting liturgies and repeating 
prayers. They make a procession around a lighted 
chapel almost in the same manner that we do in our 
churches. The masses believe that the priests are 
charged with satisfying God for the sins of the peo- 
ple ; and the rich give them revenues. They believe 
that, by the prayers of the priests, they can be saved 
from the torments of hell. There is a certain season 
when they fast : it is called * Fingan,' and is just 
like ' Lent ' among Christians. Their priests are 
* Bonzes,' who take the vow of chastity : they eat 
only once a day, and then only vegetables or rice. 
There are many different * sects ' among them, some 
of which live in monasteries. Many of them beg ; 
and people employ them to say prayers for their 
departed friends." 

With regard to China, we are informed, 
that " the priests fast and do not marry. 



PAGAN MONKS. 105 

There are four orders among them, each 
wearing a differently colored dress. These 
monks shave their heads and say ' Matins,' 
and perform the ' offices,' just like our monks 
in Europe ; and in their services they make 
use of ornaments similar to those of our 
priests." 

Let us hear no more of Father Hue after 
this. His book was so fortunate as to attract 
the attention of his holiness the Pope, who 
placed it on the Index^ to which circumstance 
may be attributed much of its notoriety even 
among Catholics themselves. ^ 

The Buddhistical monks also recite por- 

1 Father Hue's Travels in Tartary, &c. " One cannot 
help being struck," he says, " by the similarities between 
the Buddhist and Roman- Catholic ceremonials. The cross, 
the mitre, the dalmatique, the chape or pluvial, that the grand 
Lamas wear when travelling or performing some ceremony 
outside of the temple ; the ' oflB.ce ' with two choruses, 
psalmody, exorcism, the censer suspended with five chains, 
and so constructed that it may be opened and closed at will, 
the benediction given by the Lamas in extending the right 
hand over the head of the faithful, the chaplet, ecclesiastic 
celibacy, spiritual retreats, the cidte, of the saints, fasts, pro- 
cessions, litanies, holy water, — such are the points in which 
the Buddhists resemble us." 



106 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

tions of their sacred writings in the Pali 
language, which is entirely unknown to the 
most of them. This ceremony is called, " say- 
ing hana^^^ and resembles almost exactly a 
Catholic Mass. Laymen attend, who go away 
with the consciousness of having acquired 
merit by listening to it. " One by one each 
day, in regular order, the samanera novices 
shall kindle a fire, light a lamp, make all ready 
for the reading of the hana, call the priest who 
is appointed to recite it, wash his feet, sit down 
in an orderly manner and listen to the hana, 
and then repeat the joirit, or ritual of priestly 
exorcism." ^ The monks visit the houses of 
wealthy persons to " say hana^ Constant 
attendance on this ceremony or, " hearing 
hanaj'' is made one of the virtues of a Bud- 
dhist ; and anchorites may leave their retreats 
to be present when it is read. The priest who 
officiates wears a yellow robe. 

The "nimbus," which is represented as 

1 Wisudhi ISIargga Sanne, a work written in Pali, by 
Budhagosha. 



PAGAN MONKS. 107 

surrounding the head of Christ and many 
of the saints, is of eastern origin. In one of 
the " Holy Families " by an Italian master, 
Jesus has three circles about his head, the 
virgin Mary two ; while St. Joseph, John the 
Baptist, and his mother, have each one circle 
only. Buddhas is said to have been attended 
by a nimbus which extended six cubits above 
his head ; while his apostles are represented by 
native painters as having a similar mark of 
eminence. 

The resemblance between Romanism and 
Buddhism extends still farther. The Ro- 
manist prays thus : — 

Heart of Mary, conceived without the stain of sin, 

Heart of Mary, fiill of grace. 

Heart of Mary, sanctuary of the Holy Trinity, 

Heart of Mary, tabernacle of the Incarnate Word, / -P 

Heart of Mary, after God's own heart, I 

Heart of Mary, illustrious throne of glory. 

Heart of Mary, holocaust of divine love. 

Heart of Mary, abyss of humility. 

Heart of Mary, attached to the cross, 

Heart of Mary, seat of mercy. 

The first article in the twenty-first volume 



108 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

of the Tibetan Do is entitled, " Buddha nama, 
sahasra pancha, sata chatur, tri panchasat," 
and is, as the name implies, the enumeration 
of 5,453 epithets of a Buddha, or Tatagata, each 
being descriptive of some fancied or real ex- 
cellence, and are accompanied by a reverential 
formula ; thus, — 

I adore the Tatagata, the universally radiant sun ; 
I adore the Tatagata, the moral wisdom ; 
I adore the Tatagata, the chief lamp of all the regions of 
space ; 

and so on 5,453 lines. ^ 

1 Eastern Monasticism. Spence Hardy. 



CHAPTER III.1 

JEWISH MONKS. 

Elijah; John the Baptist. The JEssenes. Sources from whence 
their history is drawn ; what were the Essenes ? extracts from 
Josephus showing them to be a monkish order; who were 
they? Attempts of modern critics to trace their origin. The 
Therapeutoe. Philo's account of them. A theory suggested 
to account for the origin of these two sects ; the Essenes not 
mentioned in the New Testament ; De Quincey identifies them 
with the early Christians ; his theory confuted ; attempts made 
to trace the origin of Christianity to Essenism ; who made 
them ; did Jesus Christ belong to this sect ; the precepts and 
practices of each contrasted ; this doctrine recently brought 
to life again; examination of the " Epistles of the Essenes; " 
the "Swooning" or "Resuscitation" theory, and how it ac- 
counts for the resurrection of Jesus ; was Jesus Christ a 
monk? 

'THHE origin of Jewish monasticism is 

shrouded in uncertainty and doubt. 

Like the image of Azada in Chaldean history, 

there comes down to us, from the hoary past 

1 Josephus; Bellum Jud. ii. 8, 2; 13; Antiq. Jud. xiii. 
5, 9 ; XV. 10, 4, 5 ; xviii. 1, 2-16. Philo Judseus ; ill. 523 ; 
iy. 219, "Wegnern, Victor : Ueber das Verhaltniss des 
Christenthums zum Essenismus (in Zeitschrift fiir die His- 
torische Theologie, 1841, 2 Heft). For farther reference 

10 



110 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

of Judaism, the name of a great recluse, the 
prophet Elijah. He left the abodes of men, 
and sought the solitude of the wilderness. 
There is no doubt but that Elijah led a life 
not materially different from that of the Chris- 
tian hermits of the first four centuries. He 
wrestled with the flesh, and received his food 
from the ravens. St. Benedict and a multi- 
tude of Egyptian monks sought a like abode 
and were fed in the same marvellous manner. 
An order of Christian monks, the Carmelites, 
pretend to trace their origin to the prophet 
Elijah, and have by no means been troubled 
for arguments to support their claims. They 
say, that the lives of Elijah and Elias show 

consult Der Essaismus und Jesus, von Dr. A. Hilgenfeld, 
in Zeit. fur Wiss. Theol., 1867, 1 Heft. Die Quellen fiir 
d. Ges. der Essener, von Dr. W. Clemens, in Zeit. f. Wiss. 
TheoL, 1869, 3 Heft ; an essay hy De Quincey, The Es- 
sennes; Pliny, N. H. v. 17; Joh. Jacob Bellerman, Ge- 
schichtnachrichten aus dem Alterthum der Essaer und 
Therapeuten. Berlin, 1825 ; Nicol. Serarius de Pharisaeis, 
Saducaeis, et Essenis ; M. Bernhardi dissertatio de Phari- 
sseis et Essenis ; Adolph Roth, Dissertatio de Pliarisisaeis 
et Essenis, Jena, 1669 ; Willemer, de Essenis, Judaeorum, 
Wittenberg, 1680 ; Joh. Jacob Lange, Dissertatio de Es- 
senis, Halle, 1721. 



JEWISH MONKS. Ill 

plainly that they observed the three monastic 
oaths. God commanded Elijah to secrete him- 
self upon the banks of the brook Cherith, and 
hence to live in solitude. The children at 
play called Elias " bald-head," which shows 
that he wore the tonsure ; and his consecra- 
tion by God with a mantle was the first cere- 
mony of investment in the garb of their 
order. 

Just before the advent of our Saviour there 
was heard " the voice of one crying in the wil- 
derness;" and we are told that he was 
" clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle 
of skin about his loins ; and he did eat locusts 
and wild honey " (Mark i. 3, 6). It has been 
suggested by Taylor, the editor of " Calmet's 
Dictionary of the Bible," that John the Bap- 
tist belonged to an order of monks which ex- 
isted at that time among the Jews, and bore 
the name of Essenes. 

This brings us to the consideration of the 
first important topic of the present chapter, 
" What and who were the Essenes ? " ^ The 
1 From the Greek word baiog, holy. 



112 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

sources from which may be drawn the history 
of this sect are Josephus, Philo, and Pliny; 
and the order in which these authors are men- 
tioned indicates the respective value of their 
testimony. Pliny devotes to this subject not 
more than a dozen lines ; Philo, half as many 
pages ; while Josephus gives us a tolerably 
complete account of the Essenes, their princi- 
ples, and their mode of life. All three of these 
accounts agree, with the exception that Pliny 
says that the members of this sect never mar- 
ried, which is a mistake. 

What, then, were the Essenes ? They were 
precisely like the " Dunkers " in Pennsylvania : 
some of them married, and others did not. 
They were sometimes assembled in communi- 
ties, and sometirhes they took refuge in the 
.desert. They resembled the " Shakers " of 
New York and Northern New Hampshire, ex- 
cept that marriage was permitted among them, 
although it was not recommended. Their prin- 
cipal village or settlement was situated west of 
the Dead Sea ; ^ but Philo informs us that they 
1 See chart, frontispiece. 



JEWISH MONKS. 113 

were to be found in nearly all of the cities and 
towns of Judaea ; and he says that there were 
more than four thousand of them. The Es- 
senes were a secret society, like the Free- 
masons ; and there were three steps or grades 
through w^hich each member must pass before 
all of the secrets of the order were intrusted 
to him. The length of time occupied by this 
novitiate was three years. Their organiza- 
tion, principles of action, and mode of life, 
were in every respect those of a monkish 
order. They all wore a particular habit, ab- 
stained from the use of wine and meat, prac- 
tised the healing art, prayed much at night, 
educated the children of strangers, held their 
goods in common, sank themselves in contem- 
plation, and took the oaths of poverty, obe- 
dience, and chastity. It is true that they did 
not forbid sexual intercourse entirely. There 
was one order among them of whom Josephus 
says,— 

" They agree with the rest as to their way of liv- 
ing and customs and laws, but differ from them in 

10* 



114 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

the point of marriage, as thinking that, by not mar- 
rying, they cut oflf the principal part of human life, 
which is the prospect of succession ; nay, rather that, 
if all men should be of the same opinion, the whole 
race of mankind would fail. However, they try 
their spouses for three months, and if they find that 
they are every way fitted for the marriage relation, 
they then marry them. But they do not accompany 
their wives when they are with child, as an evidence 
that they do not marry out of regard to pleasure, but 
for the sake of posterity." (Bellum Jud. II. Chap. 
8, 13.) 

Philo, on the other hand, referring, without 
doubt, to the large portion of those who bore 
this name, writes as follows : — 

" They repudiate marriage, and at the same time 
they practise continence in an eminent degree ; for 
no one of them ever marries a wife, because woman 
is a selfish creature, and one addicted to jealousy in 
an immoderate degree, and terribly calculated to 
agitate and overturn the natural inclinations of man, 
and to mislead him by her continual tricks ; for as 
she is always studying deceitful speeches and all 
other kinds of hypocrisy, like an actress on the stage. 



JEWISH MONKS. 115 

when she is alluring the eyes and ears of her hus- 
band, she proceeds to cajole his predominant mind 
after the servants have been deceived." (Works, 
vol. 4, page 221, Bohn's Translation.) 

We cannot, perhaps, convey an idea as to 
the character of this order in any better way 
than by quoting here a few passages more 
from Josephus, on whom we mainly rely for 
our information concerning it.^ 

" They neglect wedlock, but choose out other per- 
sons' children while they are pliable, and fit for 
learning, and esteem them to be of their kindred, 
and form them according to their own manners. 
They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage 
and the succession of mankind thereby continued ; 
but they guard against the lascivious behavior of 
women, and are persuaded that none of them pre- 
serve their fidelity to one man." 

" These men are despisers of riches, nor is there 

1 Josephus was at heart a great admirer of the Essenes ; 
although he belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, as he in- 
forms us in his own life, sec. 2, vol. iv. It is oftentimes 
stated that he was a member of the Essenian order, which 
is incorrect, although it is not altogether improbable that 
he may have served a novitiate among them. 



116 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

any one to be found among them who hath more than 
another ; for it was a law among them, that those 
that come to them must let what they have be com- 
mon to the whole order." 

" Thejr are eminent for fidelity, and are the min- 
isters of peace ; whatsoever they say also is firmer 
than an oath ; but swearing is avoided by them, and 
they esteem it worse than perjury.^ They also take 
great pains in studying the writings of the ancients ; 
and they inquire after such roots or medicinal stones 
as may cure their distempers." 

" But now, if any one have a mind to come over 
to their sect, he is not immediately admitted ; but he 
is prescribed the same method of living which they 

1 This practice of the Essenes resembles that recom- 
mended by Jesus (Matt. v. 34; xxii. 26). It permitted of 
exceptions, however, on particularly solemn and important 
occasions. These very Essenes, who esteemed swearing 
worse than perjury, compelled a novice, as we are told in 
the next section, to take tremendous oaths before he was 
received into full fellowship. The case is the same in 
Christianity. The apostles, although they agreed with 
Christ and Saint James (v. 12), in forbidding to swear in 
general, yet they explain it by " avoiding to swear falsely," 
and " often and in vain ; " and again by " not swearing 
at all ; " but they add, " If that cannot be avoided, swear 
truly : " all of which sufficiently explains the sense in 
which their language is to be understood. 



' JEWISH MONKS. 117 

use for a year, while he continues excluded : and 
they give him also a small hatchet, and the foremen- 
tioned girdle, and the white garment. And when he 
hath given evidence, during that time, that he can 
observe their continence, he approaches nearer to 
their way of living, and is made a partaker of the 
waters of purification ; yet is he not, even now, ad- 
mitted to live with them ; for, after this demonstra- 
tion of his fortitude, his temper is tried two more 
years, and if he appear to be worthy, they then ad- 
mit him into their society. And before he is allowed 
to touch their common food, he is obliged to take 
tremendous oaths, that, in the first place, he will ex- 
ercise piety toward God; and then, that he will 
observe justice toward men, and that he will do no 
harm to any one ; that he will always hate the 
wicked and be assistant to the righteous ; that he 
will be perpetually a lover of truth; that he will 
keep his hand clear from theft, and his soul from 
unlawful gains ; and that he will neither conceal any 
thing from those of his own sect, nor discover any 
of their doctrines to others, — no, not though any one 
should compel him so to do at the hazard of his life. 
These are the oaths by which they secure their pros- 
elytes to themselves." 



118 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

" Now, after the time of their preparatory trial is 
over, they are parted into four classes ; and so far 
are the juniors inferior to the seniors, that if the 
seniors should be touched by the juniors, they must 
wash themselves, as if they had intermixed them- 
selves with the company of a foreigner." 

" These men live the same kind of life as do those 
whom the Greeks call Pythagoreans." 

These quotations will suffice, perhaps, to 
answer the question, " What were the Es- 
senes ? " and we will now proceed to consider 
" who " they were, and to what circumstances 
or influences they owed their origin. Here, 
let it be observed, at the outset, that we tread 
upon exceedingly difficult ground. After an 
examination of the most credible opinions 
upon this subject, the inquirer finds himself 
straying in a labyrinth of speculations ; and 
his state of mind may be described as some- 
thing worse than confusion confounded. 

Let us mention a few of the theories which 
have been propounded to account for the ori- 
gin of this sect: — 



JEWISH MONKS. 119 

1. A class of critics, of whom Bauer and 
Zeller ^ are the most able representatives, de- 
rive Essenism from Greek, or ultimately from 
Egyptian, sources. According to them, it owed 
its origin more immediately to the order of 
Pythagoras, or the mysteries of Orpheus and 
Bacchus. Quite recently Professor Keim,^ of 
the university of Ziirich, has come to the 
support of this theory; and Joseph Langen,^ 
a Catholic writer, is also of the same opinion. 

2. Dr. A. Hilgenfeld ^ has attempted to trace 
the origin of this sect to the influence of 
Buddhism, exerted more immediately through 
Parseeism, with which the Jews came in con- 
tact through their Babylonish branch. 

3. Ewald^ attempts to show that it was 



1 Griech. Philosophie, iii. 2, s. 589, iiber den Zusammen- 
hang des Essaismus mit dem Griechenthum ; Theol. Jahrb. 
1856, iii. s. 358. 

2 Der geschichtliche Christus. Zurich, 1865, s. 15. 

3 Das Judenthum in Palastina zur Zeit Ciiristi. Frei- 
burg in Bayern, 1866, s, 186. 

4 Jiidische Apokalyptik. Halle, 1857. 

5 Geschichte des Volks Israel. Bd. iv., s. 476 (Gottin- 
gen, 1864). 



120 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

the natural consequent of Pharisaism ; and 
the Jew Geiger ^ maintains the same opinion. 

4. RitschP thinks that Essenism was the 
result of the striving after a general priest- 
hood of the children of God. Exodus xix. 6. 

We might go on to point out the grounds 
upon which rests each one of these theories. 
A remarkable similarity may be discovered 
between Buddhism, Parseeism, the precepts 
and practices of Pythagoras, and those laid 
down in the mysteries of Egypt, on the one 
hand, and Essenism on the other: but it is 
only the similarity which exists between a 
man's appetite and the appetite of his grand- 
father; and in order to explain the former 
we do not consult a family genealogy, but 
rather a work on biology. We set out by 
maintaining, in our first chapter, that asceti- 
cism rested upon a legitimate factor of man's 
constitution; and human nature may be 
trusted to repeat itself without the guiding 

1 Das Judenthum und seine Geschichte. Breslau, 1865. 

2 Ueber die Essener ; Theol. Jahrb. 1855, s. 315. 



JEWISH MONKS. 121 

influence of a family record. Just as the 
Spirit of Jesus does not require to be " de- 
rived" through an Apostolic Descent, every 
time it is wanted, but comes to his true disci- 
ples whenever two or three are gathered to- 
gether in his name. 

It is true, without doubt, that existing insti- 
tutions modify the character of those which 
spring up about them, and give tone in a 
measure to the public mind; but every social 
or religious observance rests mainly and ulti- 
mately upon human nature, which is the same 
everywhere and in all ages. 

Philo, in his treatise " De Vita Contempla- 
tiva," describes an order of ascetics who lived 
between the Nile and the Red Sea.^ They 
bore the name of Therapeutae {degaTtEvzai)^ 
either, says Philo, because they healed the 
body, or cured the soul of still more serious 
maladies. Quite recently a German critic, 
Hilgenfeld,^ has attempted to show that they 

1 See chart, frontispiece (3.) 

2 Der Essaismus und Jesus ; Zeits. f. Wiss. Theologie, 
1867. IBand. 

11 



122 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

owed their name to neither one of these cir- 
cumstances, but to the fact of their leading a 
contemplative life. Philo, in describing them, 
writes thus : — 

" They take up their abode outside of walls, or gar- 
dens, or solitary lands, seeking for a desert place, not 
because of any ill-natured misanthropy to which they 
have learnt to devote themselves, but because of the 
associations with people of wholly dissimilar dispo- 
sitions to which they would otherwise be compelled, 
and which they know to be unprofitable and mis- 
chievous." 

" And there is the greatest number of such men 
in Egypt, in every one of the districts, or nomi as 
they are called, and especially around Alexandria." 
" They do not live near to one another, as men do 
in cities ; for immediate neighborhood to others 
would be a troublesome and unpleasant thing to men 
who have conceived an admiration for, and have de- 
termined to devote themselves to, solitude ; and, on 
the other hand, they do not live very far from one 
another, on account of the fellowship which they 
desire to cultivate, and because of the desirableness 
of being able to assist one another if they should be 
attacked by robbers." 



JEWISH MONKS. 123 

Philo, who it is thought was one of their 
number, often speaks of the Therapeutae as be- 
ing the disciples of Moses, — " Their precepts 
were those of the prophet Moses," &c. This 
would seem to establish the fact of their be- 
ing a Jewish sect. The similarity of their 
observances and mode of life to those of the 
Essenes would also indicate a common origin 
and identity with the same. Their chrono- 
logical and geographical proximity tend to 
strengthen this conclusion. We have data 
which enable us to trace the latter as far back 
as 200, B.C. ; while it is probable that their 
origin was of a much earlier date. If it is 
thought that the historical development of 
mankind resembles a chain in which each 
link clasps the one before it, and is clasped in 
turn by the one behind ; if the history of re- 
ligions be regarded as a tree the branches of 
which are supported by a common trunk, — 
then we would indicate the origin and prog- 
ress of Jewish asceticism, somewhat as fol- 
lows : ^ In the chapter on ancient civilization, 
1 See chart, frontispiece. 



124 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

we have expressed the opinion that the val- 
leys of the Nile and Euphrates were settled 
by the Cushites or ancient Arabians, at least 
7000 B.C. More than four thousand years 
before the beginning of our era, we read of 
Azada, a disciple of Saturn, and the founder 
of asceticism, among the Nabateans. Now 
these two waves of civilization moved at 
about the same time, and undoubtedly carried 
with them nearly the same institutions ; hence 
monkish societies must have been of yery an- 
cient origin among the Egyptians, even if we 
suppose them not to have been of native 
growth. The children of Israel adopted this 
institution, as they did many others, from their 
masters. In crossing the Red Sea, they left 
the order known by the name of the Thera- 
peutaB, behind them, and just upon the other 
side. The striking similarity which exists be- 
tween the Essenes and Therapeutse cannot 
perhaps be accounted for in a more satis- 
factory manner. Any theory of this kind 
rests, in our opinion, entirely upon suppo- 



JEWISH MONKS. 125 

sition : it may however amuse some persons 
to exercise their inventiveness in this manner. 

It is worthy of note that the Essenes are 
nowhere mentioned in the New Testament. 
Jesus came in contact with all kinds of peo- 
ple : he conversed with Pharisees, Sadducees, 
and Samaritans, but never with an Essene. 
Not even the word is to be found in the 
Scriptures. Saint Paul, Saint Peter, Saint 
John, and Saint James utterly overlook them. 
This silence is still more strange when we 
consider how nearly the precepts of this sect 
resembled those taught by Jesus ; and it is to 
be wondered at that no comparison was ever 
instituted between the two systems. We 
should naturally expect that Jesus would 
have commended this sect, but no ; not a 
single word ever fell from his lips concerning 
them. 

This fact will lose some of its singularity 
when we remember, that; the same may be 
said with regard to the Therapeutae, who 
lived, it is true, at a little distance, but, never- 

11* 



126 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

theless, must have been well known, and 
were without doubt a Jewish sect. 

Even the Sadducees are mentioned but once 
or twice ; and the carelessness of a monkish 
transcriber might have deprived us of even 
that. As for any friendly mention of the 
Essenes by Jesus, we should not be led to 
expect it from his treatment of the Pharisees, 
whom he denounced in the severest manner, 
although he chose from among their number 
the most of his disciples. So that this resem- 
blance between the teachings of Jesus and 
those of the Essenes, instead of rendering his 
failure to commend them more remarkable, 
would help to explain it. • 

De Quincey ^ maintains the identity of the 
Essenes and the early Christians. He denies 
emphatically that any such sect ever existed 
among the Jews ; but his intemperate and 
indecent denunciation of Josephus, taken to- 
gether with the not altogether scholarly 
argument, that Essenism should not be al- 
1 The Essenes, in his His. and Crit. Essays, toI. i. 



JEWISH MONKS. 127 

lowed to antedate Christianity, lest it should 
rob the latter of the originality of its moral 
teachings, shake somewhat our confidence in 
his ability as a biblical critic. In this very 
article, he quotes Josephus, who says, " the 
Essenes put up prayers which they received 
from their forefatliersP Now Josephus was 
born about five years after the crucifixion of 
Jesus : how then could he speak of the observ- 
ances of a Christian sect as though they had 
come down from the hoary past ? How will 
Be Quincey dispose of the moral doctrines of 
the Therapeutae, which resembled so nearly 
those of the Essenes, and which Philo, who 
was a contemporary of Josephus, tells us 
were handed down to them from the prophet 
Moses ? 

We may discuss here the relation which 
Christianity bore to Essenism, and take into 
consideration the probability of the one hav- 
ing given birth to the other. It has generally 
been thought that Yoltaire^ and Frederick the 

1 Compare his Dictionnaire Philosophique ; Art. Es- 
e^niens. 



128 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

Great,^ were the first to ' trace the origin of 
Christianity to the Essenian order. This, 
however, is a mistake. Voltaire resided for 
a time in England, and became acquainted 
with English thought, to which he was in- 
debted for much of his philosophy. Boling- 
broke, often quoted by Voltaire, indicates 
Essenism as the origin of Christianity; and 
Prideaux ^ declares that such was the belief 
of the deists in his time. A German writer, 
Johann Georg Wachter, advanced the same 
opinion as early as 17l3.^ In modern times, 

1 Frederick the Great, in a letter addressed to D'Alem- 
bert (18th Oct. 1770), writes as follows: "Permit me to 
say that our present Christianity resembles the religion of 
Christ about as much as it does that of the Iroquois. Jesus 
was a Jew, and we burn the Jews ; Jesus taught forbear- 
ance, and we persecute ; Jesus advocated a good system of 
morals, and we do not practise it ; Jesus never established 
a dogma, and the councils have provided richly for them. 
In short, a Christian of the third century resembles in noth- 
ing one of the first. Jesus was properly an Essene ; he adopted 
the moral system of the Essenes, which differs but little from that 
ofZeno." CEuvres, Berlin, t. xi. p. 94. 

2 The Old and New Testament in connection with the 
History of the Jews, &c. 

3 This work exists only in manuscript, and bears the 
title, De Primordiis Christianas Religionis Libri Duo, &c. It 
may be seen in the library of the University of Wittenberg. 



JEWISH MONKS. 129 

Staudlin ^ has been, without doubt, the most 
able defender of this doctrine. Reim ^ has 
also called attention to the fact that Epipha- 
nius^ says that the Christians were merely 
successors of the Essenes. The Freemasons 
in Germany * were among the first to take up 
this theory, and they entered zealously upon 
its defence ; since they had long maintained 
their descent from the Essenes ; and they 
hoped to increase their dignity by proving 
the common origin of their order and Chris- 
tianity. 

Staudlin expresses the opinion that it is 
very probable that Jesus, while yet a boy, be- 
came an inmate of one of the schools of the 
Essenes, and was educated and prepared by 
them, with the express intention of sending 

1 Geschichte der Sittenlehre Jesu. Gottingen, 1799, 
8. 570. 

'-^ Christus und die Vernunft, s. 685. 

3 Lib. 1. Haeres x., xxix. 

* Compare Ragotzky, der Treidenker in der Maurerei. 
Berlin, 1793, s. 183-192. Lenning, Encyklopadie der 
Freimaurerei, 2 b. art. Essener. On the other hand, Fichte 
and Morlin have declared themselves opposed to this view. 



130 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

him into the world, later in life, for the pur- 
pose of bringing about a great moral revolu- 
tion. We have already quoted a passage 
from Josephus in which he says that the 
Essenes took other people's children to edu- 
cate them. By others, it has been supposed 
that Jesus passed the eighteen years which 
intervened between his appearance in the 
temple at Jerusalem, and the opening of his 
ministry, in Egypt, where he fitted himself for 
his work. Each one must decide for himself 
how much weight ought to be attached to 
such speculations. There is no doubt that 
Jesus was educated very much above the 
masses, else he could not have read and ex- 
pounded the law in the synagogues. It is not 
at all probable, however, that he ever was a 
member of the order of Essenes or of that of 
the Therapeutae. The members of these sects 
were bound by heavy oaths not to reveal their 
doctrines, while Jesus bade his disciples declare 
their truth upon the housetops. If Staudlin's 
theory is correct, why were not his disciples 



JEWISH MONKS. 131 

furnished him out of the order which had 
taken so much pains to prepare him for his 
work. The widest difference existed between 
the precepts of Jesus and those of the Essenes, 
even when they seemed to resemble each other 
the most. Both advised celibacy, but for alto- 
gether different reasons. The latter were op- 
posed to marriage on dualistic grounds-; they 
believed all of the propensities of the body to be 
absolutely bad, and the work of an evil spirit.^ 
Jesus did not oppose the institution in itself, 
but advised celibacy in order that his disci- 
ples might be left free to advance his king- 
dom. Saint Paul was of the same opinion, 
for a like reason. The troubled and agitated 
state of society, together with the constant 
expectation of the speedy reappearance of the 
Messiah to judge the world, made the single 
state seem preferable to marriage. The severe 
fasting of the Essenes stands in open contrast 
with the practice of Jesus ; and when the dis- 

1 This statement may seem to conflict with a passage 
already quoted from Philo, but a careful examination of the 
subject will justify us, 1 think, in the above assertion. 



182 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

ciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees 
reproached him with his mode of life (Matt 
ix. 14 ; Mark ii. 18 ; Luke v. 33), he replied 
to them, " Can the children of the bride cham- 
ber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with 
them?" Moreover, if Christ had prescribed 
regular fasts, it is more likely that he imitated 
in this the law of Moses, rather than that of 
the Essenes. Finally, for the points of differ- 
ence are almost innumerable, we may regard 
as decisive the single statement of Josephus, 
who says, that if a senior was touched by a 
junior " he must wash himself as if he had in- 
termixed himself with the company of a for- 
eigner." This single ordinance stamps the 
order as strictly Jewish. How will such a 
practice, however, compare with the precept 
of Jesus, who taught that " the first should be 
last and the last first ; " and who himself in- 
sisted upon washing the feet of his disciples. 
The long interval between the twelfth and 
thirtieth years of Jesus, and concerning which 
the New Testament preserves an absolute 



JEWISH MONKS. 133 

silence, may leave room for the exercise of in- 
ventive genius ; but no one need wonder at 
the silence of the sacred writers with regard to 
this portion of our Saviour's life, for it should 
be remembered that the four Gospels are in no 
wise meant to be a biography of Jesus. Their 
purpose is simply to present to our view the 
Messiah, the Christ. 

This theory, which makes Christianity an 
outgrowth of Essenism, although permitted to 
slumber for a time, has recently been seized 
upon again by German sceptics, whose posi- 
tion grew more and more uncomfortable as 
the impression gained ground that the histori- 
cal evidences upon which the miracles and 
resurrection of Jesus Christ are known to rest, 
have resisted the severest test of criticism to 
which it was possible for them to be put. 
Strauss himself declares that of these two 
suppositions, — first, either Jesus died, and 
in that case was not seen afterwards ; or else, 
second, he did not die, and subsequently ap- 
peared to his disciples : he judges the latter 

12 



134 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

to be the most probable conclusion. Soon 
after this concession was made, the " Resus- 
citationists " (ground between the two mill- 
stones of a low naturalism, and the over- 
whelming evidence which has been brought 
to show that many persons died in the belief 
that they had seen Jesus after his crucifixion) 
came forward with their theory. It was by 
no means an altogether new one. About the 
beginning of the present century, Venturini 
and Bahrdt advanced the same views. The 
former published an infamous work at Copen- 
hagen, in 1800, with the following title, " Na- 
tiirliche Geschichte des grossen Propheten 
von Nazareth." 

In addition to this, a new forgery has been 
put upon the world in the form of a series of 
letters, which it is pretended were found in a 
monastery, and purport to have been written 
by a member of the Essenian order. We 
learn from this source, that Jesus was a mem- 
ber of that order, was versed in their methods 
of healing, and filled with their spirit. They 



JEWISH MONKS. 135 

watched his course with great interest, and 
interceded through Pilate for his release. This 
attempt having proved abortive, on account 
of the hate of the Jewish people, who refused 
to release him, they resorted to a trick by 
which Jesus (some of his guards being in the 
interest of the Essenes, who exerted a secret 
influence in society like that of the Freema- 
sons of to-day) was cut down before life 
became extinct, and conveyed to one of the 
monasteries of his order, where he was resus- 
citated, and, after having ventured out a sin- 
gle time in order that he might see his 
disciples, returned thither, and passed there 
in seclusion the remainder of his days. The 
welcome given to Jesus wherever he went, 
the frequent visits of eager and curious friends, 
are both to be explained by supposing that 
his hosts and guests were members of his own 
fraternity. The three wise men of the East 
were probably Essenian elders who came to 
visit the child, and secure it, if possible, that 
it might be educated in one of the monasteries 
of their order. 



136 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

It is truly encouraging when the self-styled 
friends of reason and progress are forced to 
resort to such puerile measures, in order to 
make front against those whom they are ac- 
customed to denounce as bigoted and super- 
stitious. For the consolation of this latter 
class, we will give a few quotations from these 
*' Epistles of the Essenes," which lie at the 
foundation of this doctrine of " Resuscitation," 
which has found its defenders not only in Eu- 
rope, but in the theological schools of Amer- 
ica, and still finds expression, now and then, 
through some of our religious and philosophi- 
cal journals : — 

" You have blamed us, my dear brethren, because 
we failed to rescue our friend from crucifixion by 
means of our secret agencies. But I do not need to 
remind you, that, in the first place, our rule forbids 
us to act openly, — and in this law may be found 
the explanation why Jesus never alludes in the Scrip- 
tures to his connection with the Essenian Order, — 
and, in the second place, we had two capable and 
experienced members of our fraternity zealously 



JEWISH MONKS. 137 

employed, one in the council of the Jews, and the 
other near Pilate, but their efforts were in vain, 
since Jesus himself desired to die in the cause of 
truth and virtue, and in order that the measure of 
the law might be fulfilled." 

We are informed that Jesus, after seven 
hours, weakened by the maltreatment which 
he had suffered previous to the execution, and 
overpowered by the influence of the oppres- 
sive atmosphere (which in that region was 
frequently disturbed by violent storms accom- 
panied by earthquakes), fell into a state of 
unconsciousness. A rigidness of the body, 
even so as to present every appearance of 
death, is, we are told, under such circum- 
stances, a supposition so natural and so con- 
sistent with physiological principles, that one 
can scarcely comprehend that credulous fanati- 
cism which rises up with such scornful rage 
and unyielding obstinacy against this extreme- 
ly probable assumption. 

" Towards evening a few of the Essenian Broth- 
erhood came to the place of execution, and were 

12* 



138 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

immediately impressed with the possibility of a 
rescue. Joseph and Nicodemus examined the body, 
and then the latter drew Joseph hurriedly to one side 
and said, — ' As true as I am initiated in the knowledge 
of the body and the phenomena of life, so sure is a 
rescue possible.' One of the persons present, who 
was not a member of the order, was sent off to the 
city on what might be called a fool's-errand, while 
the body was being taken down. Not far from the 
place of execution, there was a cloister belonging to 
their order from whence restoratives were quickly 
brought, and whither Jesus was conveyed after his 
return to consciousness. Thus the angels of the 
gospel record transform themselves into the hospi- 
table brothers of this monastery, whose white gar- 
ments were well calculated, especially when taken 
together with the terror of an earthquake, to frighten 
the timid aftid superstitious guards, and the next day 
to fill the minds of the women, already excited by 
grief and love, with extraordinary alarm. Jesus 
subsequently met his disciples in a quiet spot near 
his" retreat. He exhorted them to be brave and 
abounding in faith. The longer he spoke, the more 
impressive grew the tones of his voice ; and at last 
he seemed like one inspired. He prayed for his 



JEWISH MONKS. 139 

friends whom he must now abandon, and lifting his 
hand he blessed them. As he did this, a cloud or 
a volume of fog swept over the top of the mountain, 
already touched and gilded by the setting sun, and 
hid him from their view. Two of the brethren now 
come to him to say it was late ; and, while his disci- 
ples were yet bowed upon the earth, Jesus departed." 

He was induced to take this step by the 
following argument, — 

"Retire into the midst of the devoted men 
who revere you. The people, who do not under- 
stand your teachings, are debating how you 
may be made a temporal ruler, and the Roman yoke 
thereby shaken off. But it is no part of your plan 
to attempt the advancement of the * Kingdom of 
Heaven ' by war and revolution. Therefore retire 
into the solitude ; pass the remainder of your days 
in privacy, surrounded by your Essenian brethren ; 
and rest assured that thy word will not die in thy 
disciples." 

How insignificant seem the aberrations of 
the human intellect when confronted with 
this discovery ; how few the steps towards 



140 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

unprejudiced thought and inquiry which have 
been made since the days of the crucifixion ; 
how small and puerile seem the petty con- 
tentions of the priestly opposition against 
rational progress ; how selfish, when com- 
pared with its beneficent results to the human 
race ! Truly the fruit of human knowledge 
seems destined to move only in periods of a 
thousand years each. 

It remains for us to consider, in conclusion, 
this question, " Was Jesus Christ a monk ? " 
It has already been piade sufficiently clear, we 
think, that he belonged to no existing order or 
sect of this character; but Christian ascetics 
in all ages have sought to find the warrant for 
their own mode of life in that of their Master. 
It is easy enough to discover passages in the 
New Testament which, by themselves, would 
seem to favor a contemplative life. There are 
two methods, however, of quoting Scripture, — 
one is to select isolated texts, and in this way 
one may prove any thing he chooses to under- 
take; and the other method is to consider 



JEWISH MONKS. 141 

the general tone and spirit of the sacred 
writings. 

" What is happiness ? " demands an eastern 
ascetic. " A lamp sheltered from the wind." 
The Christianity of Jesus Christ was a com- 
bat with the world, a struggle against self- 
ishness and pride. " Instead of attempting to 
reform the world, like Buddha, by the estab- 
lishment of monastic institutions, he preached 
a morality accessible to all, — a morality which 
was good for the master and good for the slave, 
for the virgin and for the soldier, for every 
heart capable of understanding the Scriptures 
and disposed to love them. To despair of 
seeing the precepts of the gospel dominant 
upon the earth; to fly in disgust to the soli- 
tude of a desert, in order to escape the orgies 
of a society fallen into decay ; to think solely 
of saving one's own soul without concern for 
the salvation of our fellow-men, — is this to 
act as true disciples of him who passed all of 
his life surrounded by publicans and sinners ? 
Is it to imitate the disciples, who — alone in the 



142 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

world, ignorant and feeble — dared to attack, 
at the same time, Judaism and idolatry ? Sup- 
pose these fishermen had despaired of con- 
verting the world, and, shaking off from their 
feet the dust of Jerusalem, of Athens, of 
Corinth, and of Rome, had gone to weep in 
the desert and bemoan the irremediable cor- 
ruption of the world ! To despair of the cause 
of virtue and of truth, is this to place com- 
plete confidence in the power and in the 
goodness of our heavenly Father ? " 

The spirit of monasticism is selfishness : it 
is the avoidance of all moral responsibility, 
and results in spiritual apathy. We have 
seen the Fakirs of India attain to a degree 
of immobility almost complete. While the 
West has sought so often, says one, after the 
" perpetual motion," the East still struggles to 
find the " absolute repose." The entire min- 
istry of our Saviour was devoted to action ; 
but if the theory of monasticism is correct, 
then Simon the Stylite, who passed many 
years perched upon the top of a column, at- 



JEWISH MONKS. 143 

tained to a greater degree of perfection than 
did the Son of God. Jesus participated in the 
marriage feast at Cana, ate frequently at the 
table of his friends, and was accused on this 
account of being " a glutton and a wine-bib- 
ber." Instead of taking up his residence upon 
the gloomy shores of the Red Sea, he fixed 
his abode at Capernaum, upon the beautiful 
banks of the lake of Genesareth. " Ye who 
disfigure in yourselves the work of God, how 
dare you recognize him as the messenger of 
heaven? " 

The subject of celibacy we have already 
considered in another place, and pointed out 
the difference between the Scripture doctrine 
on this subject and that of monasticism. 

The poverty and humility of the monks 
have oftentimes been quoted as points of 
resemblance between them and our Divine 
Master, but the Old World has long since 
become used to the anomaly of seeing 
those who pretend to despise the goods of 
this earth in possession of the best part of 



144 THE MONKS BEFORE CHRIST. 

the wealth of those countries where they are 
permitted to exist. They have also been made 
to understand how a man may be individually 
poor, and yet possessed of immense riches in 
company with others. The scandalous wealth 
of the monasteries has long been well known. 
A monk, too, when taken alone, is supposed 
to be humble ; but, when taken with the great 
church to which he belongs, his arrogance 
knows no bounds. He may often be heard 
to utter, with the Franciscan monk Ximenes, 
these blasphemous words : " Never forget that 
I hold your queen every day at my feet, and 
your God in my hands." 

Humility is the garb with which God 
clothes the pious soul: pride is the devil's 
livery. 



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